Filed under: America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Family, Jill, LaLaLand, My Fatherhood, Otis, Parents
I recently was in LA for work.
Being a sentimental sod, I couldn’t help find the time to go visit some of the places that became so important to me – and us – when we lived there.
Hell, I even went to the house of the man who bought my car just so I could see it again.
But of all the places I’ve revisited in LA, visiting Otis’ preschool is the one that made me the most emotional.
This is a place he loved.
Where he met his beloved Elodie.
Where his Mum connected to people who will be life long friends.
Where they were both made to feel they mattered from the second they arrived.
Leaving LA was hard. Not for professional reasons, but for personal.
Yes I was sad to leave people I’d met who had grown to become very important to me, but hardest was taking my wife and son away from a place they had thrived in.
Even though we were only there for approx 18 months, we wanted Otis to always know there was a time this was his home … that leaving didn’t mean he’d disappeared. So we wanted to do a few things for the school of which one of them was ask if we could donate a park bench in Otis’ name, so generations of future kids could play on it and – in some way – get to know the little boy who loved that place so much over 2017/18.
By pure chance, when I was driving past the school – it was a Saturday – I saw they had an event on, so being a cheeky sod, I went in hoping they’d let me see the bench we made.
They welcomed me with absolute open arms and as they let me see the seat we left for Otis, I realized – for the first time – that I’d also left a bit of myself here as well.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, China, Culture, Differentiation, Empathy, Insight, Planners, Relevance, Resonance, Sentimentality, Wieden+Kennedy
Hello … I’m back.
It was amazing.
OK, it was more for being with the family than the physical place … but that’s because I’m not a ‘stay-down-on-the-farm’ kind of person, though I appreciate some of you may suggest it’s more because I’m not a ‘pay-for-my-own-holidays’ kind of person.
Pah.
Anyway, I wanted to return with a post that matters a lot to me.
To be honest, all of them matter to me … but as of late, I’ve been writing stuff that matters more than most.
Things like female leadership, prejudice and when work tries to kill you
Well, while this isn’t connected to the industry I work in, it is about an issue very dear to me.
Living overseas is one of the greatest privileges you can have.
Sure, there are things you give up and miss – but what you gain more than compensates for it.
Case in point. I recently had dinner with Rodi and David in San Francisco.
The photo from the evening is at the top of this post.
None of us live here. None of us work here. None of us are from here.
In fact all of us live in totally different countries and come from different parts of the world.
Rodi is Australian/Ukrainian, David is Taiwanese and I’m British/Italian.
To make matters even more random, we all met in China.
Yet despite having all moved on from our time at Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, we remain connected … not because of the company we worked at, but because of the generosity of the country we experienced.
This dinner represents what England has voted entire generations never to have.
It’s an act of utter selfishness.
Utter, utter selfishness.
So many in society like to bestow that label on the youth of the UK, but it’s not them.
It’s the Daily Mail reading, over 55’s who have enjoyed good fortune in their life but don’t want anyone else to have it. Who don’t want anyone else to evolve and grow because they don’t want to be left behind and feel less important.
Selfish, egotistical, bigoted and blinkered pricks.
The reality is my ability to live around the World has made my life unquestionably bigger, better and fuller.
Almost everything I have and treasure is because of my life outside of England.
That is not in any way meant to say life in England is bad – far from it – but anyone who thinks there is greater value staying isolated versus expanding the possibilities of life through adventures, experiences and friends that exist beyond the borders of our shores has either never done it or is frightened of it.
May I have dinners with friends in countries none of us come from for many years to come.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Corporate Evil, Culture, Management, Revenge
… and I have always struggled to walk that line properly, but fuck it … the person it’s about has screwed over so many people – including myself – to ensure they are able to maintain [and protect] their career and internal reputation.
Now I appreciate they never went out their way to bring anyone down.
And I know that deep down, they are not a bad person, just a very, very ambitious person.
But when you don’t back your people so you can look good to your bosses, then eventually you get what you deserve.
It might not be as much as the people they screwed over think they deserve … but when you know that their entire ‘reputation’ is built on very fragile foundations, you also know the slightest crumble in their carefully constructed ‘career veneer’ affects them deeply inside.
God, I’m such a bastard, but for good reasons.
After all, the brilliant Rupert Howell once said about me, “Robert is driven by hate, but in a relatively good way.”
Oh, and for the record, while this individual is not part of the post I wrote relating to When Work Tries To Destroy You, he is part of the reason – admittedly, a very small part – of why I started Corporate Gaslighting.