Things You Need to Know

Business Etiquette

Impossible vs. Difficult

February 02, 2011

Last week Saturday, I was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a conference of women law students. This was a “freebie,” a pro bono engagement I had agreed to undertake because the university has been such a very good client. It nearly proved to be a case of no good deed going unpunished.

Less than 72 hours before the presentation, my assistant received an email from my key contact indicating that a “slight hiccup” had occurred. Apparently, my contact had been in touch with the school’s IT folks. The latter said it was “impossible” to conduct a PowerPoint presentation in the locale where the lunch was scheduled to take place.

It turned out that what was described as “impossible” was actually just very difficult. All of the necessities—a projector, a screen, electricity—were available. The room, however, consisted of a wall of glass. As a result, my actual presentation was sun-bleached and not as vivid as I would have liked. Had my contact taken the extra effort of simply affixing paper to some of the windows, the end result would have been better.

In a service profession, it’s critical to know and understand the difference between “impossible” and “difficult.” Very few things are absolutely “impossible.” (Admittedly, there are some. For example, I will never play on a professional basketball team.) When starting work, interns, summer associates and new hires must take the impossible, convert it to difficult and then create solutions that are easy as pie.