Tips: Do it right the first time, don't get HK'd
This is one of my favorite stories, and I like to read it (and share it) as many times as I can. The reason I'm writing about it today, is because of the numerous reminders that I have had recently about rushing things, just to get them done. We've all heard "measure twice, cut once", or "why do we always have time to do it again, but never enough time to get it right the first time?". I don't know if this story is true, but I think you'll all get the point ...
I call this, "Don't get HK'd"
The famous Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had an intern working for him. On one random Thursday morning, Secretary Kissinger asks the intern to write a position paper on a certain topic. The intern is excited and spends the next three or four hours writing this paper. He’s excited, and leaves it on Secretary Kissinger’s desk at the end of the day. He is pretty proud of his achievements, so he goes to the bar with a friend of his and has a couple of drinks, boasting that he is now writing positions for the Great Secretary Kissinger. As the intern drives into work very early that Friday morning, he’s excited to hear what the Secretary thought of his paper. He’s all smiles as he walks the halls of Foggy Bottom and comes to his desk to see his paper, positioned directly in the center of his desk, with a handwritten note …
“You can do better than this”
HK
A little deflated, the Intern plopped down at the desk, read the paper and realized, objectively, that he could have done better. So, he pushed his workload aside and began to tackle this paper all over again. He tore it apart, re-wrote passages, did more research, and worked pretty much all day on this new revision. He had worked straight thru lunch and finished around 4pm. He knocks on the Secretary’s door to find that he wasn’t in, and drops the paper on his desk again proudly. Thinking, he’s got to like this. Since he had worked through lunch, he was pretty hungry and went to the cafeteria to grab a quick bite to eat. He was gone about 45 minutes, and when he came back to his desk, his paper was positioned directly in the center, with another handwritten note …
“You can do better than this”
HK
“Does he realize that I spent the last 7 hours writing this?” the intern thought, but before he started throwing things around, and getting angry, he objectively tackled the problem. He began to re-read the paper, making small red marks on the pages. Seeing quite a few in the 8-page document, he thought to himself, “maybe I need to compare this to ‘his’ work”. So, the intern digs up old files (physical ones remember, things weren’t stored on the company server back then). And he finds quite a few random position papers that Secretary Kissinger himself had written over the years. He carried the box back to his desk thinking, this is going to be a very long day. He read them, and not only realized that there were certain angles that he hadn’t considered, but research in so many topics that was missing in his paper. So off to the Library of Congress he went, and spent the entire weekend. Yes, he read, researched, and noted everything that he could on the subject and spent the next three days and nights working on the paper. At 7:30AM Monday morning, still in the same clothes from Friday, he sat at his desk waiting for the great man to come into the office. As he saw Secretary Kissinger walk into his office, he stood up, straightened the tie around his unshaven neck, and confidently walked into the ‘man’s’ office. “Excuse me Secretary Kissinger, I’m sorry to barge in like this” .. “What is on your mind so early?” Kissinger asks “Sir, the position paper you asked me to write, and then re-write two times, is now complete. Before you read this and turn it back to me saying that I can do better, you need to realize that I spent the entire weekend reading everything published on this subject, researching every contingency and published thought on this position. I even dug up old position papers that you personally wrote to compare my thoughts and work on what you had done in the past. So please sir, take that into consideration, I can’t do any better than this one” The Secretary smiled and responded, “Thank you, for that clarification then this one I’ll read” Get it done right the first time, make sure you put the proper amount of effort needed into every project, so you don't get HK'd. Pinnacle Sales prides itself on helping its clients, customers, and interests by providing "Service Above the Rest". We chose this motto, because it's what we believe and put into practice every day. We look forward to working with you and your team, and providing you the service that is deserved.
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