[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":83},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-en-when-good-work-isnt-enough":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"cover":68,"date":69,"description":70,"draft":71,"extension":72,"locale":73,"meta":74,"navigation":75,"path":76,"seo":77,"stem":78,"tags":79,"__hash__":82},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fen\u002Fwhen-good-work-isnt-enough.md","When good work isn't enough",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":61},"minimark",[9,13,17,25,31,34,38,45,48,52,55,58],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Some of the people I most want to work with are creatives who don't have a big wallet. Musicians, illustrators, small ateliers, people building something out of nothing. They have taste, they have a vision, and often they have exactly the kind of project that makes the work worth doing. What they don't have is money.",[14,15,5],"h2",{"id":16},"when-good-work-isnt-enough",[10,18,19,20,24],{},"I used to think that if the work was good enough, the price would take care of itself. It doesn't. A website can be the best thing I've ever made and still get turned down — not because someone doubts the quality, but because it simply doesn't hold enough value ",[21,22,23],"em",{},"for them"," right now. Their budget is going into the studio, the next release, the rent. A beautiful site is a luxury they can't justify yet.",[26,27,28],"blockquote",{},[10,29,30],{},"A \"no\" isn't always a verdict on your work. Sometimes it just means the timing and the wallet didn't line up — and that's harder to argue with than criticism.",[10,32,33],{},"That distinction matters, but it doesn't make the moment sting any less.",[14,35,37],{"id":36},"how-it-lands","How it lands",[10,39,40,41,44],{},"I won't pretend it doesn't get to me. You pour real care into a proposal, you see the finished thing in your head, and then it stops at the number. It's easy to read that as rejection of ",[21,42,43],{},"you"," — of your taste, your craft, your worth. For a while I did exactly that.",[10,46,47],{},"What helped was separating two things: whether the work is good, and whether it's affordable for this person at this moment. Those are different questions with different answers, and confusing them is what wears you down. The work can be excellent and the answer can still be no.",[14,49,51],{"id":50},"friendship-deals-and-shared-visions","Friendship deals and shared visions",[10,53,54],{},"It gets more complicated with friends. The friendship deal — a lower rate, a favour, building something together because you both believe in it — is some of the most rewarding work there is. But it's also where things quietly break.",[10,56,57],{},"When money is small or absent, the vision has to carry the weight instead. If both people don't want the same thing with the same intensity, the cracks show fast: scope drifts, motivation fades, and suddenly a generous gesture feels like an obligation on one side and a disappointment on the other. I've learned that a friendship deal only survives if the shared vision is genuinely strong — strong enough to hold two people together when there's no invoice forcing the issue.",[10,59,60],{},"So I've stopped chasing every project that excites me, and started asking a quieter question first: is the vision here strong enough to carry what the budget can't? When the answer is yes, I'll happily make room. When it isn't, walking away early is the kindest thing for the work, the wallet, and the friendship alike.",{"title":62,"searchDepth":63,"depth":63,"links":64},"",2,[65,66,67],{"id":16,"depth":63,"text":5},{"id":36,"depth":63,"text":37},{"id":50,"depth":63,"text":51},null,"2026-06-16","On working with creatives who have more vision than budget — why good work still gets turned down, how that rejection lands, and why even friendship deals need a shared vision strong enough to hold.",false,"md","en",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fen\u002Fwhen-good-work-isnt-enough",{"title":5,"description":70},"blog\u002Fen\u002Fwhen-good-work-isnt-enough",[80,81],"Personal","Clients","lbLwLA9xufsWQ2oaLbshReWM0rOyyt-_StVAMLPhiwc",1781691288633]