People say that we should have a president who is more like us–one of the common folk, just a regular guy.  Not me. I want to vote for the smartest son-of-a-bitch we can find.  He’s got to run the whole government.  If we only got somebody as smart as me to be president…I shudder to think of it.

Same goes for creative directors, media planners and production managers. I want everyone in the agency to be smarter than me…and my clients.  It gets competitive out there and I want the best crew on my side.

But I’m an account guy.  What account people need to be better at than anybody else is incredibly good judgment?  There is no way to train or prepare someone how to handle every particular problem.  And how a problem is responded to depends on the personality, experience and temperament of the person who’s trying to burn off your face with a blowtorch.

Suits don’t need to be the smartest people in the shop. But they should have the best radar and the thickest skin.