I met Adela eight years ago, while she was attending her first AWAI copywriting bootcamp. (Like ETR’s Info-Marketing Bootcamp, the copywriting bootcamp is now held every fall in Delray Beach, FL.) She was an energetic, recently divorced, ambitious 36-year-old, bubbling with ideas. "This is the best conference I’ve ever been to," she told me at the end of the three-day program. "I can’t wait to get back home and get to work."

I was excited for her. If there was ever someone who seemed charged up and ready to go, it was Adela.

To an outsider, it might have seemed a very easy choice. Good Guy Greg, one candidate for the job of heading up the project, was very professional, a tough negotiator, dogged, determined, and principled. The other candidate, Slightly Shady Sam, had a reputation for being tough on his employees, hiring his friends… and he was rumored to take kickbacks.

Which would you choose?

When my sons were growing up, I dreaded meeting with their teachers. I was always a tiny bit afraid that somewhere in the middle of the conversation the teacher would lean forward, grab my ear, and chastise me. This may be an irrational fear, but it is deeply seeded. It was planted many years ago at St. Agnes elementary school, and it was nurtured in middle school and high school by just about every teacher who had the misfortune of having me in his or her class.