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I saw this quote over on Yangonthu’s blog and I loved it …
“Listen, nobody got into this business to play it safe. And we’re all here because we wanted to be and you’re all acting like it’s another job – but it’s not”.
That comes from the broadway play/film A Chorus Line and I like it because I am meeting way too many people who think that just because they work in adland or a a cool agency in adland, they’re hot shit and that’s just the wrong attitude to have.
I subscribe to the view I had bashed into my head at HHCL … once you’re “in”, that’s where the journey of continually proving you have a right to be [and stay] there, starts – not just to colleagues, bosses and clients – but to the people who would give their right arm for your job and the industry who will happily pounce on any weakness [especially with great agencies] like expert conmen … so instead of sitting back and basking in the glow of self-appointed, self congratulatory success … keep pushing, learning, trying and doing because the day you start to believe your standards are good enough simply because of the title you have or the agency you work for, that’s the day you demonstrate you are – and may need to be – replaced.
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so which fucker pissed you off to make you write this?
wouldnt be any of our lot so who was it. names campbell, we want fucking names.
great fucking quote, relevant to the lucky lazy and wpp board directors but theyre so egofuckingtistical they dont see anything wrong talking big but doing average.
its as much agencies responsibility / dept heads as the individual but with so many of them having a recruitment philosophy of “fill the seat” its not too fucking hard to see why some agency people have their head stuck firmly in the clouds, sand or fucking trough.
and to people who find themselves in great agencies, it doesnt mean youve made it, it means you have a greater amount of pressure to keep up their good name and start developing yours. man utd have a big squad but only a few get to play each week and the scottish red nose ditches the ones who dont prove themselves with frightening regularity. problem with adland is its too easy to be comfortable or hide.
Comment by andy@cynic April 12, 2010 @ 7:09 amI hope this post didn’t come about because of something I said/did and it’s because you got out of bed the wrong side or have mondayitus.
Love Andy’s comment, especially the last para.
Comment by Pete April 12, 2010 @ 8:14 amI think I get the Man Utd analogy … but obviously being a creative, you’re not as good at that as planners, ha!
In all seriousness, your comment is sadly great – ‘sadly’ because it’s true, not because I hate it when you say something smart. But that as well.
And you know perfectly well who I am talking about so stop trying to cause mischief.
Comment by Rob April 12, 2010 @ 8:53 amWonderful movie quote and a good reminder.
Comment by Lee Hill April 12, 2010 @ 9:28 amYou’re a whore at the beginning of the month and a hero at the end of the month. Sales people say this. And in this business, you’re really only as good as the last thing you came up with … that worked.
Comment by adchick April 12, 2010 @ 10:01 amI think that’s the true test of greatness adchick … however this industry does have an incredible ability to celebrate history – probably because so few of them do anything worthy of note/legacy in the present.
Comment by Rob April 12, 2010 @ 11:07 amNice post for a Monday
Comment by bhaskar April 12, 2010 @ 1:29 pmHHCL have a lot to answer for.
Comment by DH April 12, 2010 @ 2:58 pmThat’s what a lot of people I’ve worked for/with have said over the years Dave … including the founding partners of HHCL.
[Rupert Howell once described me to a client as a ‘hand grenade’ and then apologised – as if he didn’t have anything to do with me & my ‘ways’!]
Comment by Rob April 12, 2010 @ 4:22 pmHand grenade? Was that because your ideas made a mess?
Comment by DH April 12, 2010 @ 6:22 pmThanks for shattering 20 years of carefully managed delusion there Dave.
Comment by Rob April 12, 2010 @ 6:34 pm