Power Play: Know when to walk away

For most of us, it’s hard to walk away, especially when you’ve worked on something for a long time. But sometimes walking away is the only smart, decent and prudent move.

Knowing when to walk away is one thing; doing it quietly and with class is the clincher.

Power Players know that it’s time to walk when it feels like you’re pushing molasses up a sandy hill – write that line on your wall.

Listen to your intuition, make friends with your gut and know when to walk away. Do it quickly. Do it quietly. Do it with class.

The story

I was once part of a team working on a major sporting event bid. We were asked to produce a film from perhaps the most awful script we’d ever read.

Against all the competition of some of the country’s most powerful players we said no.

Why? Because you always have to know when to walk.

We were decisive. We were fair. We were humble. We never said it was a terrible script – we simply said that it would be best produced by the writers themselves as they were closest to the material.

Walking away saved us in the end because, no matter the decision by the sporting body, we’d still have a full set of teeth the next day.