Tapping out (from the combat sports) is yielding to your opponent. Defeat is immediate.

In football, tapping out—for anything less than being unconscious—is considered a disgrace. Take the Bears’ Jay Cutler, who refused to re-enter a critical playoff game after a minor injury. Astonished fans derided him as he sat on the sidelines and victory slid from their grasp. The price? A Super Bowl berth.

The fans aside, he also lost the respect, trust and confidence of his teammates. And in financial terms, his value as a quarterback took a large hit.

I just spent one of the more interesting days of my career. Not with a client, but on a movie set. An alliance partner—a talented director who makes corporate videos—is filming an indy feature and invited me to spend the day on-set as an extra.

While I could wax poetic about the experience (Armand Assante was a joy to watch), it was something more basic that captured my imagination: the symphony of multiple experts perfecting their craft in tandem.

All the crew—plus the actors—were focused on doing their own job well, but seemed to keep the bigger vision firmly in mind. The expert who donned a wetsuit to rig the pool lighting. The “Best Boy” on the roof slinging cable. The costumer making sure an extra (me) had just the right jewelry. It was a bit like watching an ant farm in action.