"Losers See Black and White. Winners See All the Gray."

For a Living

My new client said they had $5,000 budgeted for their ad creative. Period. Our team told me it would cost $12,000 for the brilliant concept they developed. I freaked out and told the owner I was being put in an impossible situation. He smiled and said, “If you see this as black and white you lose. If you see all the gray you win.” He sent me back to my client with the team’s ad and this simple pitch, “We could give you an ad for your budget no problem, but you could do this, what you really need, for about twice that.” Sold in two seconds.

This was about a young account executive focusing on numbers instead of what great work could do for our client and me learning that everyone gets what they deserve by not seeing things as all or nothing.

 For a Life

 I would bet that every guru, every self-help book, and every psychotherapist’s advice could be summed up with “see the gray.” When Heraclites said, “Nothing is Permanent.” When Tony Robbins said “Awaken the giant within.” When my therapist said, “You’re obviously getting something from making yourself anxious.” They were all saying, “It isn’t this OR that. It’s this AND that.”