In a Letters of Note story, Frank Lloyd Wright received the following letter in 1956.
Dear Mr. Wright

I am a boy of twelve years. My name is Jim Berger. You designed a house for my father whose name is Bob Berger. I have a paper route which I make a little bit of money for the bank, and for expenses.

I would appreciate it if you would design me a dog house, which would be easy to build, but would go with our house. My dog’s name is Edward, but we call him Eddie. He is four years old or in dog life 28 years. He is a Labrador retriever. He is two and a half feet high and three feet long. The reasons I would like this dog house is for the winters mainly. My dad said if you design the dog house he will help me build it. But if you design the dog house I will pay you for the plans and materials out of the money I get from my route.

Respectfully yours,

Jim Berger

After some back and forth, the Master designed Eddie’s dog house. It was the smallest structure ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Jim Berger grew up to be a high school shop teacher and his brother a cabinet maker. Unfortunately, Eddie never really liked the dog house. He continued to sleep outside, presumably because it was warmer than the shaded, concrete slab.

So remember, when you next make a design decision (and we all do), that not even Frank Lloyd Wright could design a dog house that Eddie liked. Understand that you can’t please everyone in design. So strive to please yourself.