The Roger Sterling guide to agency life

On Sunday night, AMC aired the season five finale of “Mad Men.” (If you haven’t watched it yet, don’t worry—no spoilers in this story.) Season five has, in my humble opinion, been the best yet. For me, it represents agency life like no other show before it, especially in relation to the handling of clients and staff.

The star of stars, especially in this season, has been Roger Sterling. Sure, Don Draper is the main guy, but no one delivers wisdom and sage advice like Roger, week in and week out.

After giving Roger’s stellar advice some deeper consideration, I think there might be a few new agency rules to live by. So, as the sadness of the season finale kicks in, let’s all take a moment and thank Roger for his wisdom and vision.

Never take ‘no’ for an answer; if anything, embrace it.

We all have moments when we’re not sure if a prospect is open to an approach. The fear of being told “no” is often the biggest obstacle, especially if you’ve been through a bit of a rough patch.

Roger’s advice is simple. Turn a negative into a positive. In his own words (on being met with a “no”): “You used to love ‘no.’ ‘No’ used to make you hard.”

Hard to argue with that.