Most People Face Their Toughest Challenge Later In Their Careers. Mine Got Me Right At The Beginning.

When the hardest boss in the game is in the tutorial level.

I met my most difficult client just as my career was taking off.

Fresh-faced, barely 2 years into copywriting, and I already faced a new fear – the toxic client.

Imagine presentations interrupted with mocking laughter, documents thrown across the room, the works. The verbal abuse was a constant punch to the gut, leaving my colleagues dazed even minutes later. People were regularly reduced to tears.

This client was a little less brutal with newbies like me (probably had a soft spot for a fellow copywriter starting out). But the damage came in the feedback – or lack of it. I often reworked work until it lost all meaning. Approval? Tied to their mood that day. Oof.

For 3 years, this was my reality. I’ll admit it broke me – this was the closest I ever came to quitting advertising. My morale was in the gutter, my creative spark gone.

How did I survive? I had a great boss. He ran interference, backed me up at meetings, and went over my client’s head when things got crazy.

But here’s the thing: you need bosses who fight for you, but not too much. Some battles you have to face alone. Fixing mistakes, taking a few on the chin – that’s what builds resilience. My boss understood that.

Over time, I learned to push back, lost my newbie ‘immunity’ (lol), but it felt empowering. The client left, life went back to normal.

Experiencing bad clients early on is a twisted blessing. It teaches you to lower your expectations, develop tons of patience, and secretly, you get to smile a bit when your modern day colleagues stress over a tough email.

Rookies. 😈

Bad experiences suck, but some make you better. All of them, however, teach you something.