The nice thing about being a freelancer is that, if a job comes your way that you’re not particularly excited about, you can just quote them a ridiculously high price. That way, if they say ‘no’, you’re happy because you really didn’t want to do the job in the first place and you didn’t have to tell them ‘no’ (which I hate to do). And if they say ‘yes’, you’re suddenly rich and nothing else matters. This happened to me last week.

A company from Belgium was asking around HP if they knew of any actors who would be available to make presentations at an upcoming four-day trade fair in Barcelona. A colleague of mine recommended me and I got the call. The four days in question looked a little complicated because Jan had a bunch of children theatre shows and I would be needed to look after the kids. So I almost said ‘no’. But instead – and with Jan’s blessing – I sent them a ridiculously high quote for my services as an actor. They immediately came back with a ‘yes’. Schwing!!! Jan and I were both very happy. Until today.

I just found out that the company that wanted to hire me is a direct competitor to HP. I thought it would look pretty bad if I was at the same trade fair as HP, right across the aisle from them, trying to make the competition look good. Especially considering how many HP marketing videos I have starred in recently. I asked my manager’s manager what they thought (not that I really had to) and I got the answer I was expecting. So I had to turn the job down. But I did get to recommend a friend to take my place. So that’s OK.