In the Summer of ’83, I returned to my desk as at a trade association in Washington, D.C. and found the most remarkable message.  It was written on a pink, “While You Were Out” note no longer used much: “Frank Mankiewicz called.”  Frank died yesterday.

A call back led to an interview which led to working with him for the next 13 years.  In that time and in the nearly 20 years since, he didn’t change much, but every day I discovered ways in which he had changed me.  The entire team he assembled, stayed or moved on but never lost sight of how he had influenced us all.  It comes to this: leave nothing on the table.

What you thought mattered; so did what others thought.  The best ideas are the result of collaboration.  Give people the benefit of the doubt, until they prove they don’t deserve it.  At that point, it is OK to hold a grudge.  Look at an assignment from every angle; even the easy one.  Never stop working the problem.  The greatest personal traits? Discretion, loyalty and candor.

I came to understand that what we did, we did 24 hours a day, seven days a week, not because we had to but because we wanted to.  He helped us understand that work and life were best when they could be integrated in one.  They had to be.  Otherwise work was just, well, work and life was less interesting.

He was a yardstick against which none of us measured up but all of us mattered.  Thank you, Frank.