The Best That You Can Do

Every semester, we tell our writing classes a story. The story was first told to us by a writing professor some twenty years ago. It's probably apocryphal, but we like to believe it's true. At any rate, it illustrates something that all writing students need to understand.

Once upon a time, on a sunny Monday morning, the president of an advertising agency called his staff into a meeting. "I've got good news, everyone. We just landed the account for Shiny Toothpaste." (Some names have been changed to protect the innocent.) The president continued, "Now, this is a multi-million dollar account, so I need your best work. I want you all to go back to your offices and get started. I want your ideas on my desk by 5:00 this afternoon."

So all the account executives and artists, copywriters and assistants, streamed energetically out of the conference room and back to their offices. They spent the rest of the day brainstorming and drafting, tossing ideas back and forth, and by the end of the day they had quite a lot to drop off The president thanked them and told them to meet in the conference room the next morning at nine o'clock sharp to discuss the proposals.

The group gathered in the conference room at nine o'clock. They waited. 9:05. 9:10. 9:15. At 9:20, the president entered the conference room. He carried all of the proposals in a large stack.

THUH-WACK!!!!

He slammed the papers down on the conference table. He glared at his staff.

"Is this the best that you can do?"

The assembled copywriters and artists and project managers looked at the table, at the floor, at each other--anywhere but at their boss.

"Now look," he said, "I said I need your best work on this. Get this stuff out of here, go back to your offices, and get me something good by 5:00 today!" He marched out of the conference room.

Five o'clock. The proposals were dropped off. Another meeting was called for nine o'clock the following morning. The morning came. The participants waited. And waited. And waited. At 9:30, the president swept in and--THUH-WACK!!!--"Is THIS the BEST that you can DO?!?"

Again, the audience looked anywhere but at the president. For a full minute, there was silence.

"Now, look, I don't think you understand the importance of this account. This is a major opportunity for this firm, and if we don't produce quality work, our reputation will be garbage! Now, I want you all to go back to your offices. I want you to work on these today. I want you to work on them tomorrow. I want you to leave them with me by 5:00 Thursday evening. We will meet on Friday morning at nine to discuss them. And if the work doesn't show some massive improvement, some of you will no longer be working here by Friday afternoon."

The next two days passed by in a blur for the members of this advertising agency. Lunches were skipped, phones went unanswered. People stayed late on Wednesday night, they came in early on Thursday morning. At five o'clock, they slipped their proposals into the president's mailbox and went home, dreading the next morning's meeting.

Friday. Nine o'clock. Door opens. President walks in. THUH-WACK!!!! "IS THIS THE BEST THAT YOU CAN DO?!?!"

Everyone looked down at their feet, at the table, at each other. Everybody but one young lady. She stood up, looked at her boss, grabbed a folder from the top of the pile, and shook it in the president's face. "You know what," she said, "Yes. This is the BEST that we can do!"

The president looked at her, took the folder from her, and sat down. "All right," he said, "In that case, I'll read them."

SO

Whenever you are called upon to produce a piece of work, before you hand it in, put yourself in the position of those advertising executives. If your reader were to ask if this is the best that you can do, would you proudly say "Yes," or would you be one of those people sheepishly reaching for the paper, hoping to receive another chance?