 Now, going back to this trip in New York, I was also helping Matthew put on a tour event that should be an event for about 400 people. And because it was right at the end of the trip and immediately following the book launch as well as the TV show coming out, we hadn't really thought about it very much and it kind of got us by surprise. And so I show up to the venue on the Saturday morning when the event is scheduled to take place. And I quickly realized that everything that could conceivably be wrong with a venue for our sort of event is wrong with this venue. It's an eighth floor dance studio that has this tiny rickety lift that can take about three people so our entire audience has to go up eight flights of stairs. When they get there there are these two enormous pillars right in the middle of the room so most of the audience's view is somewhat obscured. It has no windows and no air conditioning and it's a boiling hot day. And because all of the press that Matthew's had, we have 200 additional people show up for whom we have absolutely no seats. Now this isn't like going along to see a stand-up comic or something for an hour and where you'd be okay to stand. Matthew sometimes speaks for six or seven hours so he had these hot sweaty people just sat at the very back. Now the kicker was that we had promised everybody that we would be doing a book signing but could just come out and so it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. But the venue told us as soon as we had arrived we have a completely hard stop at six o'clock. You're not allowed to go over and everyone has to be out by then which meant that we weren't able to do that and for anyone who's ever been to see Matthew you know he's not somebody who likes to stay to schedule. He likes to go as long as he possibly can. So this left us without anywhere to do a venue. So I assigned myself the task as soon as things were settled down as much as they were ever going to to go down onto the Manhattan pavement or sidewalk as you might say over here and to see if I could find a place where we could do the book signing. I walked a few buildings down and I found a bit of a swanky hotel so I went in and I said to the receptionist thinking about what's the selling point here and I say we're doing an event just a few buildings up. We have 600 single women. Can we possibly bring them here to do a book signing for an hour? It's a bit of a strange request. The guy's a bit disbelieving but I take him around to the venue up the rickety lift and I show him the events that we're putting on. Somewhat motivated by this he goes back and puts on a case to his manager for why they should let us do this. Now at this point we have absolutely no budget for doing this but I say to him if you're able to frame it as a way of us really being a boon for your bar and restaurant we can use this as a holding area and then take people through. I thought I'd give him some ammunition to go and negotiate the position. Amazingly the manager said yes and he came out and he took me not just to any room but their penthouse conference room. This was up in a very grand lift that could take about 50 people and it was just an amazing room that was perfect. He said we'll have some extra staff members here see you at six o'clock. So I went back with the good news to tell Matthew and I slipped him a note on stage and said this is where we'll be doing the book signing. You can announce it to everyone it's absolutely fine. So he did and as the event was wrapping up I thought I'd run down to be there when everyone arrived to be able to welcome them and take them through. But the manager came down and said we just had a call from central office and they told us we can't do it without charging you for the room. It's $5,000 for an hour. Now as soon as he says these words women start teeming into the bar and restaurants about to queue up and not quite knowing what to do I dash back to see if I can somehow find Matthew. I start kind of fighting up currents up the stairwell and I'm able to find Matthew just a few floors up and I have to prize him to one side away from some of his fans and admirers. And I think my exact words were I've effed up royally and Matthew very calmly perhaps more out of exhaustion than any kind of equanimity at this point very calmly says what have you done? I say the venue screwed us a little bit they want $5,000 to use the room. At this point we're just about getting down onto the pavement and Matthew says no problem we'll just do it here. He takes off his bags, puts them on the floor turns to the nearest woman next to him and just starts signing her book in the middle of the street. We're able somehow to form a somewhat orderly line and we just take over this entire pavement. But I have to run back into the hotel and say to all of the women who are queuing up in the bar Matthew's just been mobbed in the streets we're not doing it here anymore you'll have to go out in line and find him there. The lesson that I take from this is that if you run your mistakes and you announce them loud and proud the people that you work with will very often be forgiving and they'll work with you to find a suitable solution sometimes the kind of which you otherwise would never have seen yourself. As one last point on this topic of apologizing I want to try and offer you something that will mitigate the number of mistakes that you make it's impossible to eliminate the number and you'll still make plenty but this will help just a little. At times the person that you work with will likely make completely unreasonable requests. Now this usually isn't because they're a completely unreasonable person but rather that they don't know everything that you have on your plate or they don't quite understand the complexity of something that they've asked you to do. When this happens it's really your responsibility to vocalize this and to communicate it. And I actually want to give you a line that you can use to do so with maximum grace and poise and to minimize the chances of a Elon Musk-like blow-up. The line is this. I would rather disappoint in expectation and deliver than promise the world and crumble. I'd rather disappoint in expectation and deliver than promise the world and crumble. Now when you say these words someone will be very understanding and they'll work with you to try and find a solution whether that's getting you some additional support whether that's moving the deadline back a little bit perhaps reducing the scope of the project. But it's on you to communicate this and communicate it, you must.