The secret of my success.

Of late I have been busy.

Juggling my usual busy account, broadcast production on another account and literally three pitches.

I am in demand--heated demand, it seems--from every corner of my agency.

I run from floor to floor.

From too-bright conference room to too-bright conference room and big account problems are laid in front of me.

There are 16 people in the room.

Right off the top, like parsley on a dinner plate, eight are useless. They say not a word, take not a note. Who knows why they're in the room billing hours.

Four or five chip in a comment or two.

And then there's me and two others, me and usually the people "in charge."

We go back and forth for 45-minutes of our allotted hour.

We arrive at ground we like.

The meeting disperses.

We'll meet again in 24 or 48 hours.

I go back to my table and I write.

I write the answer.

It might not be the most wildly creative thing in the world.

I don't know how to make things pretty.

I don't worry about powerpoint builds.

I write simply and clearly the answer.

We reconvene at the appointed time.

Everyone else comes in empty-handed.

In fact, 30 minutes of our next hour are spent on refocusing the group.

Reminding people who said nothing, contributed nothing and did nothing what we said we were going to do.

I present what we said we were going to do.

It is lauded. Praised. Applauded.

People wonder how I did it.

Simple.

I actually did something.

I didn't theorize.

I didn't postulate.

I didn't discuss.

I didn't administrate.

I didn't manage.

I didn't timesheet.

I did.

Try it some time.