The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Recently someone came out a while back to publicly slag some work Colenso had done.

I’m fine with that, but it was why they slagged it off that I took offence to.

Because rather than acknowledge their opinion was entirely subjective … rather than acknowledge their lack of understanding of the work we have done with the client over 15+ years … rather than acknowledge the incredible success it has achieved all over the world, they whined and bleated about why we were wrong and they was right like they were the bastard love child of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Laurence Fox despite [1] they were factually incorrect and [2] they’re opinion on creativity is one dimensional.

Oh they’ll claim otherwise, but that’s because they have positioned themselves as a business pioneer when really they’re an insurance salesman.

There’s nothing wrong with that – they’re very good at what they do and what they do is important – but they’re more about ensuring you don’t fail rather than get ahead.

But what really got me was the arrogant confidence they spoke about their idea while happily dismissing our work.

Now I shouldn’t be surprised because their whole schtick is to provoke for a reaction – they’re a bit like a shock jock these days, like many of his type – but while I should have just ignored it, I bit … offering them some clarity to go with their delusion.

And yet despite this, they didn’t respond.

No acknowledgement.
No reconsideration.
No apology.

Instead they replied to anyone who reinforced his echo-chamber of opinion which is classic entitled, ego-driven, gaslighting behaviour. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, given they’re fast becoming a caricature of themselves … however it did remind me of something my Dad used to tell the lawyers who worked for him.

“When people need to tell everyone how smart they are, they’re not that smart”.

This was his way of telling them one of the most powerful skills you can develop for your career, is self awareness.

The ability to look at an issue from all sides.
To be able to know what you’re not good at.
To be open to the new and different.
To acknowledge when you’re wrong.

Now that’s good advice for anyone, but given how many of Dad’s former staff are now leading lawyers/QC’s [though they’re now KC’s … which I find hard to remember given it wasn’t that in Dad’s day] in areas of human rights and press freedom – from The Guardian to the NYT – it seems he had a better understanding of what intelligence really is than many who base it simply on academic achievement.

Maybe this is the sort of thing that should be taught at business and marketing schools … so we stop seeing people [read: privileged, white men] continually ‘evolve’ into the beasts they say they were made to slay in their desperate attempt to stay in the spotlight.

On one level I get it.

The older you get, the less the spotlight shines on you.

Not because what you have to say is wrong or out-of-date, but because there’s new people coming up, with new ideas and new ways.

But to our populists of marketing practice, this is like kryptonite.

They want the spotlight.
They need the spotlight.
They live for the spotlight.
They’ll say or do whatever it takes to keep it on them.

Doesn’t matter if they contradict what they said before.
Doesn’t matter if they proclaim subjectivity as fact.
Doesn’t matter who they’re talking to or what about.
Doesn’t matter how inflated their ego or pedestal.

THEY. NEED. THE. FOCUS.

For them. And only them.

Hence we’re in this weird situation where the people who are supposedly at the peak of our discipline are happy to play in the trough.

Not all of course, but more than a couple.

Which not only doesn’t bode well for the future of the industry – especially the bright minds who have new ideas that may challenge or evolve traditional concepts – it reminds me of something else my Dad used to say …