EPTPlans are always falling apart, people are always bailing on me, and ideas don't work out like I'd like them to. For example, I chatted with a certain MLG employee (who shall remain nameless) about SC2Ratings, and he was very interested in the idea. We emailed back and forth a few times which ended up with him saying he was going to give me a phone call to talk about stuff. Day of the phone call, I send him a short reminder about it, but I never hear from him. I shoot him another email asking if we can reschedule, and I get no response. At all. We had concrete plans, (date, time, activity, and all the information needed to complete it), and even had a reminder, but he completely blew me off.
OK, no big deal, shit happens. At the next MLG (a few weeks later) I swing by and ask to talk to him, but get the response (from the person that went to ask find him for me) that he's too busy. Of course he's busy, I get it, not a problem. I certainly don't want to be the guy who bothers staff when they have stuff to do, but if you don't keep trying, you'll never get anywhere. So I check back the next day and then once more on the third day. Each time, too busy.
The problem I face, when dealing with stuff like this, is that if I just take the hint that he doesn't want to talk, and back off, I'll never get anywhere. On the other hand, if I keep pushing when he's throwing out "stay the fuck away", I'll just damage my relationship with the organization. It's a very fine line that needs to be walked - one the one hand you need to be assertive and get the attention of people, but on the other hand you have to make sure you don't come off as annoying. Once somebody thinks you're just a pest, they'll never talk to you again.
Another example of failure that happens, aside from people blowing me off, is when other people try to hold up their end, but don't do it well. They half ass things. The best example I can come up with, and forgive me for discussing this publicly, is when somebody first offered to help with the site. It was during an MLG, and he said he'd get all the information up. So, we walked though how to add matches to the system, how to define the players, etc. On day of (while I was at MLG, so I couldn't update things), I created the information for the season, and it went live. Well, he only added a few matches - not everything. When I get back, and take a look at the site, I find that for the last 3 days, the MLG brackets were about 20% filled.
If we're going to be tracking tournaments, and adding information as things happen, we need to stay on top of it. How bad does it look when 3 days after an event is over, a site has some of the information, but not all of it? Yes, it's not the end of the world, but people are going to stick to sites that do have all the information they need. So yeah, I was pretty pissed, explained it to him, and revoked his ability to add stuff.
This is an example of me failing, not the guy who offered to help. I should have walked him through the process better, made sure he understood how to do it. I also should have impressed upon him the importance of doing the whole tournament, and not just part of it. If I had taken the time to talk more, either he would have done everything, or would have let me know that he couldn't, in which case we wouldn't have had anything up for that MLG until I got back. Much better to not include something, than to include it poorly.
(BTW: In the end, everything worked out with this guy, and now he's becoming an important member of our team)
There are more examples of this failure, things like unmet expectations, failure to draw enough users, people going back on their word, etc., but this is getting kind of long so just trust me that I've met with no end of problems, delays, and utter failures.
When things do not work out, you have to keep trying. Don't take 'No' for an answer. Talking to the guy at MLG not working? Shit. Better try a different MLG employee. Still not working? Well, lets go talk to IPL. They don't want anything to do with me? How about NASL? Change the tactics, change the approach, find somebody to vouch for you, whatever it takes, just KEEP TRYING.
The hard part is having the will to continue with it feels like you're facing a brick wall. Thankfully, I was born with the stubbornness of a mule - I just keep trying, and pretend that it doesn't hurt when things don't work out.
