"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."

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It's not always fun when your co-workers become your competitors – particularly now, when the threat of downsizing hangs over every industry like the sword of Damocles – but I honestly believe that what's good for the work is good for the agency and thereby good for the staff. Having said that, losing still sucks.

Jamie and I once pulled an all-nighter to crank out some critically important TV scripts. We presented internally to great acclaim, the Executive CDs took them to client personally and we were delighted to get a call the next day telling us to hurry back from lunch, as client had approved one of our scripts and we needed to make revisions in a hurry. In his office, the ECD congratulated us on our win, saying that while client liked all the scripts, they LOVED "the one with the kid". Which, as you've probably guessed, we hadn't written. We explained it was the other team, he thought we were joking and everybody turned bright red. Good times.

One final thought: when sharing in a group, always go first. Great minds think alike and it can be pretty brutal having to follow a good presentation with "Um... what they said."

-Graham

 

 

 

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