Disrupting the perceived order of things can be a very good thing

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead

In a guest post on my blog four months ago, Valerij Tomarenko said that the biggest mistakes that freelance translators make is when they simply say no to a potential new translation project because they are busy at the moment, without trying to collaborate with each other.

That is certainly one of the major mistakes that many of us make. Another, more general mistake is that most translators simply accept what is perceived as the natural order of things and simply try to find a way to fit into the confines of this order, even when it is not a very good fit, instead of trying to find the most advantageous position for themselves if it means disrupting the general perception of what the existing order is supposed to be.

The thing is, our world is quite disorderly, and there really is no established or natural order in the translation business. Compliance with the existing order of things is mandatory … only if you are a robot. In this country (USA), translation is a completely unregulated business activity. This is both a good thing – unlike for instance hairdressers, we don=t have to ask the City Hall for a permission to do what we do, and a bad thing – anybody can call himself a translator.

Some people would like us to think that natural order of things in the translation business is as follows: customer, unreachable by mere mortals called translators → almighty agency, whose job is to keep translators on a short leash → lowly translator who does the actual work. But that is not true either. There is not even a real definition of what an agency is: based on my income, only about 70% percent of yours truly is a translator, the rest of me is an agency. Many translators belong to this mixed category, with different assignments of the percentages, as they both translate themselves and hire translators.

I call these translators hybrids. And if these hybrids disrupt the perceived order of things, I think it is a good thing, because unless existing order of things is disrupted every now and then, things are usually getting worse and worse.

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Let’s take a look at a few examples of disruptions of perceived order in the business world.

Microsoft Word thinks that as the unquestioned King of Word Processors, it can dictate to the whole world how much and how often we will be all paying for it. This would mean that we would have to buy a license for this software once a year if Microsoft can get away with it, although it is a really lousy product.

But because it is such a lousy piece of software, more and more people are switching to free office suites and even back to WordPerfect. You actually own WordPerfect once you buy it, which is what I am using to write these posts, and you can still keep an old copy of MS Word for conversion purposes.

Microsoft decreed in its infinite wisdom earlier this year that its most recent version could be installed on one PC only. Lot of people complained on the blogosphere, but as usual, there was nothing in corporate media. About a month ago, the King=s Decree was suddenly amended – apparently, MS Word can now be installed on up to 5 PCs (too late for me, I am so mad at the King Who Has No Clothes that I will not buy it anyway, especially since I would have to waste money on it every year).

Another example: an unholy alliance of cell phone service providers has been pushing for years now down the throat of a captive market segment expensive data plans, so expensive that the cell phone bill of a typical user at this point is about a hundred dollars in this country, often more.

But since T-Mobile has recently thrown a spanner in the works by offering Afree basic data plan with no contract@, all of a sudden, major carriers started offering less expensive plans.

Once my iPhone contract expires next month, I too will probably switch to a less expensive plan.

I could include also people who are getting rid of their cable TV bill and other examples of disruptive conduct that can lead to very positive results.

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Unless translators themselves are able to participate in the planning and shaping of the order of things, for example by becoming disruptive hybrids themselves, other people will create a system for us in which they will be on top, and we will remain on the bottom.

Each of us has different strengths and weaknesses. Some people can translate several languages, which is probably my main strength. After about two decades of translating mostly from Japanese to English, I am now translating more from European languages than from Japanese because there is much less demand for this language.

Some people can both translate and interpret, which is also a major strength, and some translators are good at marketing, holding of client’s hand, or have other skills having to do with management of people and projects.

There is no need to accept the perceived existing order in the “translation business” (customer →  agency → lowly translator) as an immutable law of nature if we don’t like the way some agencies treat us.

If we work only for translation agencies we like (because they treat us well), we will lead happier lives, and probably live longer too.

Too many agencies don’t seem to realize it, but the main difference between translators and translation agencies is that while we can make money without them, a true (non-hybrid) translation agency simply can’t make money any at all without translators.

Here is to hoping that some readers of my blog will be on their best disruptive behavior next time when they are asked to sign another incredibly restrictive and demeaning “Non-Disclosure Agreement” presented to them by another translation agency even before any rates are mentioned.