“You know him best. You should make it your mission to turn things around and get him on board.” 

My boss was referring to one of the toughest clients with whom I’d ever worked and asking me to win him over. I was stressed. In order to deliver our project as effectively as possible, we needed this client’s input and support. With more than a year of work ahead of us, I truly desired to have a productive and amicable working relationship with him and to convince him that we wanted to help him and his team be successful.

But during the first few months of our business engagement, this client had spoken harshly, sent aggressive emails, and made no effort to collaborate. I was anxious before every interaction with him because I never knew how he would react, despite my best efforts to be friendly and to communicate clearly.