For years I used email drafts as quick ways to gather notes. I’d hit compose, start writing notes and leave them as a draft until I needed them later.
Obviously, there are a ton of notes that end up unused. And over the years my drafts folder became filled with them. So I decided to start going through and deleting miscellaneous old notes.
However, I found a few interesting ones—including some lessons from Red Square Agency’s lovable founder Mr. Sullivan. He was retirement age, but I think retirement would have been too boring for him. He enjoyed the chaos of the office and left around noon to play golf most days anyways.
Mr. Sullivan and I were usually the first ones in the office on a given day. And if there was something on his mind—he’d let me know. A few months before I left the agency, I started writing some of these things down.
Some gems from Mr. Sullivan:
The best HR is to pay people well and shake their hand when they leave. You don’t need damn yoga classes. Your best talent will leave. Let them leave on good terms.
Borrow and owe as little money as humanly possible. If you do borrow, pay it back quickly. Debt eventually puts you in a weak position.
The person at the top should always take the blame on a fuck-up—even if they weren’t the ones that fucked up. If you can’t accept the faults of your reports, you can’t lead.
If you’re good, someone will pay you. That may not be your current boss. The only thing that precedes the number of times I’ve heard people ask for a raise is the number of times I’ve asked for one myself.
That would have been from around 2013, before I left to start SidePrize. Mr. Sullivan was a great man. If he’s still alive, I hope he’s doing well.
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