"Oh yes, it is starting to feel like this may be your best work yet." The confidence is flowing. Of course you still have some minor text changes maybe, or even a couple different color options you may want to mock up. But overall, you couldn't possibly feel any better about the "masterpiece" you are privileging your client's eyes to see. It feels good.

I think we all know exactly where this story is headed. You've finally shown the awesomeness to your client in hopes they faint and fall to the ground because of the overwhelming glory and perfection your design emanates. But instead they look at what you did, and just crunched their eyebrows down a little and say... "I don't know. Not really what I was looking for. We want something a little more corporate."

You can get angry and you can get your feelings hurt, but ultimately you just need to realize that you screwed things up. You lost focus. You were more focused on creating what was visually appealing to you instead of what the client was looking for. This is where a lot of designers get lost, and it happens most to the ones that are more confident than others. Don't get me wrong, confidence is extremely vital in the creative process. What matters is the placement of that confidence.

Here's an example: An 8 year old boy really wants to impress the girl that sits next to him in class. He doesn't know how, so he asks his older brother for advice on the matter. The brother tells him he should draw her a picture. "She'll love it!" he says. So the boy goes to class the next day and sits in his seat. The girl walks in and sits down and the boy leans over to her and asks her if he can draw a picture for her. She's flattered and of course says yes and then proceeds to tell the boy she likes butterflies. So the anxious boy gets to work on his new drawing. But as he starts drawing, the sketch starts to look a little more and more like a power ranger. Even though it was probably the greatest power ranger drawn ever, it's still not a butterfly. He hands the girl the drawing the next day, and needless to say she was not impressed at all.

Confidence is priceless when concentrated on the appropriate areas. Keep that in mind. Good designers are good because they deliver a service the client wanted, not because they delivered what they thought looked good.