Burn your portfolio : stuff they don't teach you in design school, but should
(Book)

Introduction : Burn your portfolio ... really? -- Section 1. Human engineering : The big fat secret -- The extra mile -- Soak up advice -- You are not your work -- Be nice to everyone -- Drama is for soap operas -- No more flying solo -- Gripes go up -- The stress bucket -- Two types of grandpas -- Be a wall painter -- Every position can be electrifying -- Lead or be led -- Half the victory -- The value of downtime -- I'm not a writer -- Toot your own horn -- Don't work in a vacuum -- The graphic design megazord -- Live as a team, die as a team -- Everyone does something better than you -- You are responsible for your own time -- Section 2. Art smarts : OCD is an attitude -- Polishing turds -- Hairy moles -- This is not verbatimville -- Shock and awe -- Art is meant to be framed -- It is never to late for a better idea -- Filler failures -- A river runs through it -- Comps or comprehensive? -- Design like the wind -- Type fast -- How to eat an elephant -- The Venus initiative -- Process-a-palooza -- Hiking your way to successful projects -- Solving end-of-day rush -- Why projects blow up -- The lo-fi PDA -- Bring out your dead -- Shake the bushes or get bit -- Red flags and extinguishers -- Brainstorms are 90 percent bad ideas -- The communal brain -- Section 3. Two ears, one mouth : The ultimate email formula -- Beware the red dot -- Email black holes -- Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto -- Canned communication -- Tin can phones -- Vicious vernacular -- An army of support -- Friendly updates -- Deadline ballet -- Big brother -- The domino effect -- Avoid the W.W.W. -- Be afraid to click "send" -- The tragedy of time zones --

Section 4. Happy head honchos : Designers are from Mars, clients are from Venus

Let your client leave their mark

"Forgiveness" points

Let your client be the 800-pound gorilla

Do your genealogy

Never give your client homework

Assume that people are clueless

Long-term relationship value vs. single transaction profit

Oddities at the start mean oddities at the end

Don't be the desperate girlfriend

Stand in manure, smell like manure

Never fire a client?

"We decided to go another direction" means "you suck"

There are such things as stupid questions

You can't get mad at math

You have 65 seconds to land a job

How to ask for a raise without asking for a raise

Section 5. Mind your business : Do what you love; the money will follow

A business that looks orderly

Making cents of it all

How to calculate a burn rate

The fixed-bid pricing dartboard

Beware of line-item pricing

"No charge" doesn't mean "free"

How to flush out a budget

Twenty-piece chicken McNuggets

Nonprofits for non-profit

The code of fair practice

Contractual mumbo jumbo

"Etcetera" has no business in your business

You don't have to sign off on this

B.A.M. lists

One line that changed everything about collections

A business is an organism that wants to die

If I've got a dollar, you've got a dollar, but no partners

If you want to win the game, you have to know the score

There is no such thing as a "meet and greet"

How to make a capabilities presentation

Floods happen

Flexibility, not freedom

Never do undocumented work

Next worry date

Nickels and dimes are for lemonade stands

Only terrorists like hostage situations

Oh where, oh where has my $100k gone? Oh where, oh where can it be?

Don't do anything you can pay someone $10 per hour to do

"Skin in the game" usually means "free"

Three-month "lifetime" guarantee

"Being your own boss, " whatever that means

How to bite the bullet.