There is a question every marketing director eventually asks me, usually in the third or fourth email, usually phrased carefully. It is some version of: can you handle our chairman?

What they mean is: he has forty minutes, he does not enjoy being photographed, he has approval over the final image, and the last three attempts were quietly shelved. They are not asking about my lighting. They are asking whether I will make the situation worse.

The honest answer is a list of names.

The people who taught me to work in twenty minutes