A couple of weeks ago, I paid a young German man named Ibo to clean my apartment. When he found out that I am a graphic designer, he whipped out some tattered pages upon which he had doodled sketches for a logo for his natural cake-baking business. They were not terrible ideas, but they were not the most brilliant designs I had ever seen, either. I asked him a few pointed questions meant to steer his thinking in subtly different directions and then went to the café so he could get to work.

Last night, when I called him to see when he could come back and clean again, he said, "David, you did not like those logos I showed you, right?"

I said, "I thought they were fine; I just had questions about why you did what you did."

He said that he had met with another designer just that day to discuss possible logos, and that he had been afraid to show the designer the same sketches he had shown me because, after my comments, "all I could think was that they were terrible." He continued, "And you would know, because you are the expert."

So my question is, is my mild criticism so easily mistaken for revulsion, or does Ibo just have little faith in his own abilities? I wonder this because I am in the middle of writing a business proposal that raises similar--actually even more substantial--questions about a concept proposed by a client of mine, and I am afraid they will be taken in much the same way.

Perhaps I have little faith in my abilities.

Of course, I am the expert.