I learned the John Donne phrase “No man is an island unto himself” back in grade 11 literature class with Ivar Ford at Brentwood College School in Mill Bay BC. It has always stuck with me, and I have grown to understand it more an more as I grow older and can apply it more.
How this relates to sponsorship is remembering that none of us work in a silo (though we may be the only person in our organization in our own department and no one else understands). No matter how we look at it, our success and that of our partners depends on so many other people. As a brand, we rely on the property to deliver. If we are the buyer, the creative people are critical to the success of my purchase. If we are a property and sold the sponsorship, the operations people are critical in the delivery of what we promised the brand. If that brand was activating, that is critical and outside our sole control. Nothing we do in this industry is done by a single person. None of us are an island to ourselves.
So, as we hope that others will pull their weight and support us as we need them to, we need to be consciously of what we need to accomplish in a timely manner so that others can do their jobs in a timely fashion. When we are late on creative, the printer gets a shorter timeline which may mean a day or two late delivery which means rescheduling the installers. Together we win, alone we fail.
Keep this in mind; no person is an island unto themselves. In our industry, we are all equals and all reliant on others to support us in our mission to the finish line and the mirror points back to us to do the same and deliver on what is expected of us.
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