Freelancing is the grass that looks green to the full-timed corporate drones. The dream to one day be one’s own boss seems hard to resist. But it can also be a nightmare.

A freshly discovered blog by Ratna Rajaiah, an ex-advertising suit now a freelance writer, tells it like it is about freelancing:

So you are your own master – big deal. The only thing that means is that when you crack the whip, it smacks your own butt and ow, does it hurt… you need to be a pretty decent runner – to run after people who’ve promised you money (yours that they owe you)/assignments/contacts/anything and how exhausting it can be to do all of this while wearing patient, polite not to mention a blazingly charming smile, when all you want to do is kick the person’s teeth in. (You know, that guy who said tomorrow never comes? He must have been a guy who makes out cheques to freelancers.)

My good friend and Arabic copywriter, translator, author and poet, Hanna Farha recently had a tough time getting paid by one advertising agency here in Dubai. They owed him around US$ 10,000. Yes – that’s more than 30,000 dirhams in dues!

Now, Hanna is a very soft-spoken and gentle person, most writers are. So what did he do? He spilled his heart out and wrote a poem to the agency’s client.

And guess what? The agency paid up. Now that’s what I call the power of poetry.

God forbid, should you be at your wit’s end dealing with an agency that treats its freelancers like beggars without bowls, take inspiration from this:

Let’s pray – a poem by Hanna FarhaLet’s pray… let’s pray
Hoping that (ad agency name)
Will pay
Its debts, our bills
Without delay
Debts to those who’ve been waiting
Night after night,
Day after day
A number of days now exceeding
One thousand days and one day
Waiting for (brand owner name) the great
To think about others’ fate
And put an end to a nasty game
That will only bring (ad agency name) shame…
Let’s pray… let’s pray
Hoping that (ad agency name) will soon pay…
Its debts, our bills, without delay
To those she owes, quite a lot
Standing in big lines, on the way
Suffering from strong winds and dust
And a lousy weather
Wet and hot
But remember Mr (brand owner name)
My ads made you our “King Kong”
No one can claim you were wrong
No one can claim you are wrong
They all think, you’re always right
Please excuse me Mr (brand owner name)…
Ask your (ad agency name) to pay us now
What she owes
No ‘why’ and ‘how’
Please make sure, Mr (brand owner name)
That (ad agency name) pays us all, in peace
Or else we’ll go to the police
We don’t like wars
We don’t like fights
We only want you
To pay our rights.

(c) 2006 Hanna H. Farha

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