The Story of Henry Kissinger – Expecting the Best

I have heard several times the story of Henry Kissinger’s high stanards and expecting the best. Most recently I read about it in Shane Parrish’s book: Clear Thinking. I thought it was about time to paraphrase the story, so I internalize it and share my thoughts.

As the story goes, Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State, was known for his meticulous attention to detail and high standards. One famous story about him involves his method of reviewing drafts from his staff. When a staff member would submit a document, Kissinger would often ask, “Is this the best you can do?” The staffer would take it back, work on it further, and resubmit it, only for Kissinger to ask the same question again. This cycle might repeat several times. Finally, when the staffer insisted that it truly was their best work, Kissinger would simply say, “Good, now I’ll read it.”

In a more modern twist, I recently read a story from one of Barack Obama’s speech writers who tell’s the story of Obama’s interesting twist on the classic question. Apparently Obama was known for asking writers whether the lenght of a given speach could be reduced. In the words of the speach writer, this lead to better speaches which might have seemed impossible at the drafting stage.