It was Wednesday morning and I needed someone to do an ad.
Every team was busy working, except one copywriter whose art director was on holiday.
I said, “If you’re not busy, can the account guys brief you?”
He said, “Er, my art director’s back on Monday. Can’t it wait until then?”
In those few words, what has he just told me about himself?
Think about it.
He’s told me the art director is the important member of the team, and the writer can’t work without him.
So that’s now logged in my mind, and I’m his creative director.
How smart is that?
He’s just told me that if either one of the team is expendable, it’s the writer not the art director.
That all the work they’ve done together as a team was mainly down to the art director.
What a doughnut.
Now when the writer was on holiday, I never got that sort of answer from the art director.
Because he understood, when your other half’s on holiday, you don’t use it as an excuse to take to easy.
In fact, that’s exactly the time you work harder than ever.
To prove you’re not the weak link.
So, if you’re smart, you quickly find someone you can help out on whatever they’re working on.
If you’re really smart you find several people.
Get a few ads under way with different people, while your partner’s off.
So everyone can see you’re not just a passenger.
Now imagine a team where both of you thought like that.
Two really powerful, capable people.
Both desperate to get on and have a successful career.
Absolutely no question of slowing down to anyone else’s speed.
If you want to work with people like that you’ve got to speed up.
They’re not waiting for you.
How good a team would that be?
I always tell students that you shouldn’t think of yourself as 50% of a team.
That’s very weak, and dependent, and low energy.
You should always think of yourself as 100% of the team.
Capable of doing the whole job on your own, with or without a partner.
You’re not half the team.
You are the team.