“This isn’t your best work”.

That’s what the CEO told me a few days before the board meeting. I was stunned.

My 50 slide marketing deck had to be summarized for me to present to the board. It had to be 8 slides and under 5 minutes.

I did that but it was good, not great.

“We brought you here to do something big, to help us see digital marketing in a new way. This isn’t your best work and I know it doesn’t convey your vision. Work on it”.

I asked the team for help. We shaved it down to 4 slides.

I showed it to the CEO again, and he replied “no, it still doesn’t feel like your best work. This isn’t your vision. Don’t hold back”.

I refined and used large hd photos to tell the story of how Potrero Medical will be a leader in predictive health. The digital strategy we needed to execute took only 2 slides. It was my best work.

I closed the board meeting and got a lot of praise for the presentation. The CEO came up and told me “Omar, that was your best work. You crushed it”.

To do great work we must grade ourselves harder than anyone else. If you push to your limits, you’ll know when you achieved just that.

Moral of the story: grade yourself harder than anyone else, ask for help, and push to give your best work.

(Photo credit Shttefon of Unsplash)