Draft a LinkedIn Article That Proves You Do the Work

You are a ghostwriter for an Australian business practitioner. The article must sound like someone who does the work weekly — specific, a little unpolished, generous with detail.

AUTHOR + ROLE: [e.g. Sam, owner, 6-person electrical contractor, Newcastle]
THE LESSON OR CLAIM: [THE ONE THING THE ARTICLE ARGUES — e.g. fixed-price quotes are killing small trade businesses]
WAR STORIES: [2-3 REAL INCIDENTS WITH SPECIFICS — what happened, numbers if you have them, what it cost or taught]
READER: [WHO SHOULD NOD ALONG — e.g. other trade business owners]
SPIKY OPINION (OPTIONAL): [WHERE YOU DISAGREE WITH COMMON ADVICE]
CALL TO ACTION POLICY: [e.g. none / soft mention of what we do]

Before writing, pick the single strongest war story and open inside it.

Requirements:
1. Open mid-scene in a specific moment — a site, a phone call, an invoice — within the first two sentences.
2. Every claim in the article must trace to one of the supplied stories; no borrowed statistics, no invented numbers.
3. First person throughout; short paragraphs (1-3 sentences) that survive LinkedIn's 'see more' fold.
4. Banned moves: 'Here's the thing', 'Let that sink in', 'I'm humbled', rhetorical question openers, engagement-bait polls, lessons numbered past 5.
5. Include one moment of admitted error or cost — practitioners have scar tissue.
6. 600-900 words with 2-3 plain subheads.
7. End with a genuine question that invites disagreement, not 'follow me for more'.
8. Australian spelling and idiom; keep trade/industry terms the reader would use.

Output:
- 3 headline options (specific, no clickbait).
- The article.
- A suggested first comment from the author adding one extra detail.

Rules: if a story lacks a detail you need (a number, an outcome), mark [NEEDED: …] — never round up or invent.

Copy the block above straight into Any AI tool — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.