That Time with the ‘Visionaries’
Okay, so I gotta share this story. Happened a while back when I was freelancing more. Got this lead for a project, sounded pretty standard on the surface. Some guys starting a new thing, needed a website. Easy enough, I thought. So I set up a call.
Met these two dudes, the founders. Full of energy, bouncing off the walls practically. Talked a big game about how they were going to change everything in their niche. You know the type. Lots of jargon, lots of hand-waving. Standard startup hype, didn’t think much of it at first.
We started digging into what they actually wanted built. And man, that’s where things took a turn. It wasn’t just a simple brochure site or an online store they were after. Oh no.
These guys wanted the moon on a stick. Seriously. Their list of ‘must-haves’ just kept growing. It included stuff like:
- A super-smart AI that could read users’ minds, basically.
- Some kind of social network integration that connected everyone.
- Real-time holographic product previews (I’m not even kidding).
- And naturally, it all had to be done using blockchain for ‘trust’.
And the timeline? They needed it ready for launch in six weeks. Six! For this sci-fi epic they’d dreamed up.
I tried my best to bring them back down to earth. Talked about what’s actually possible, you know, within a reasonable timeframe and budget. Tried explaining about phases, starting simple, iterating. Basic project stuff. They just looked at me like I was speaking another language. Said I lacked ‘vision’. Said I was too ‘conventional’.
It was wild. They genuinely believed all this stuff was not only possible but easy to do, quickly. They had zero technical understanding, just pure conviction fueled by… I don’t even know what. Coffee, maybe?
And the budget they mentioned? Let’s just say it wouldn’t even cover the coffee bill for a team working on something a tenth of that size. It was completely disconnected from their expectations.
I spent another call trying to reason with them. Drew diagrams. Showed examples of complex projects. Nothing. They were completely locked into their fantasy. It was like talking to a brick wall, but a very enthusiastic brick wall.
In the end, I had to pull the plug. Just told them I wasn’t the right fit for their ambitious project. Couldn’t waste any more time on it. You learn pretty quick you just can’t build dreams with thin air and pocket change, no matter how ‘visionary’ someone thinks they are.
Never did see their world-changing platform launch. Funny that. Some people are just operating on a whole different frequency, man. Totally insane.
