“Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth”

We always hear about the importance of being versatile amid today’s rapidly changing workplace and marketplace. Can you describe a time when your versatility helped you to achieve your goals when you were confronted with a difficult situation at work?

I’m not even sure I’ve done this very well, to be honest with you. I don’t even know if I am versatile. I think that being versatile really means adaptability in situations of great stress, of situations where you think you have a plan and that plan doesn’t go your way. There’s a great Muhammad Ali—or maybe it’s Mike Tyson, quote, it’s a quote from a boxer. I’m pretty sure it’s Mike Tyson, where he says, “Everybody has a plan, until you get punched in the mouth.” Metaphorically. I think for him, it’s more literally. But that’s the truth, though, right? I think 9 times out of 10, it’s not going to go how you want it to, right?

And I think the more you manage that expectation in your head, that it’s not always going to go the way you think it is, but you will figure it out. That is the true sense of versatility. I can tell you so many times where I’m coming up with a marketing campaign, I’m coming up with a go-to-market strategy. And I’m like, I’m looking at the data, and the data suggests that we’re 90% sure that this is what’s going to happen based on previous results. I tell my team all the time, this isn’t what’s going to happen. I know what’s going to happen, something I can’t predict. But we need to be ready for all scenarios. Whether it’s a crisis, whether it’s something amazing, but the more that we’re prepared, the more that whatever the outcome is, we’re like, “Oh, yeah, we knew that was going to happen.”

And so I think versatility, what that really is, is the management of expectations in your head, that things aren’t always going to go exactly how you want them to, however, you are going to figure them out. There are so many times where I’m in the middle of a crisis where I just like, we’re so stressful, whether it be, again, like some PR crisis is crashing down on me, where I need to think about how we make a statement, and it’s very stressful. And I feel like I’m going to cry. I just say, “You know what, you’re going to figure this out.”