Bill’s 10 Laws of Awesomeness

You ever come across something on the Internet that, in a profoundly good way, stops your in your tracks?

In “What Bill Knew,” Michael Bierut, Senior Art Critic at the Yale School of Design, shares a delightful story about master designer, William Drenttel. Bierut writes:

To my surprise, many people remembered — could even quote passages from — a single lecture he had given over 20 years ago, in his days as a business guy. I remembered it too, and I mentioned it to his wife, Jessica Helfand. “Oh, I think I have that somewhere,” she said, and a few days later a simple four-page leaflet came in the mail.

It commemorated that much-remembered talk, one he had given on October 4, 1991, on the opening night of the AIGA National Design Conference in Chicago. It was part of a program organized by Chris Pullman called “Thirty Lectures in Thirty Minutes.” Bill was one of the 30 speakers that night, and true to his reputation, gave a talk called “Everything I know about business in one minute.” These are the ten things he said.

1. Focusing on making a partnership work is more profitable than focusing on making money.
2. Love your employees more than you love your clients.
3. The best new business is your current business.
4. Price projects by asking yourself what the client’s lawyer would charge.
5. It’s better to be hired for your work than for your price.
6. When it comes to getting paid, the first of the month is better than the thirtieth.
7. Making money off mechanicals, printing and computers turns your business into a commodity.
8. The books in your library are more important than the numbers on your balance sheet.
9. In order to love your work, take vacations.
10. Power, in business, comes from sharing money and valuing love.

I’ve read it so many times in the past three days I’ve almost committed to memory. There are worse things to commit to memory.

Thanks for sharing, Michael. As requested, I’m making a donation in his memory.

[box type=”bio”] Oh, and PS – Because life moves too fast for all of us, I want to draw your attention to a special project two special people have just begun. As one of them writes about The Legacy Project, “it comes from the desire to not lose stories with the passing of your parents, grandparents and others. It’s a way to create a time capsule of life stories as told by your loved ones.” Have a look… you’ll be glad you did.[/box]