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

So after Cannes, Si – Colenso’s CCO and annoyingly wonderful human, albeit with a dash of mischievous evil – posted this photo.

Attached to it, he wrote the following:

We had a great year on stage at Cannes. But instead of posting a photo of the high, here’s a photo of the low.

The other thing I love is Hadleigh laughing in the corner. Comradery and fun in the hard times is the only way you make it through.

Frankly, among all the Cannes backslapping posts across Linkedin, it was a welcome relief.

But it was more than that. It was an important comment.

A reminder that the role of creativity – especially commercial creativity – is fucking tough.

And while you tend to forget all the pain and hassle you have gone through when you win, the reality is few get to. And even fewer get to do it with a Grand Prix, the creme de la creme of a category.

So I loved Si posted this. That he acknowledged it. Especially given we had a good Cannes – winning our 2nd Grand Prix in a row – so it would have been dead easy for him to bask in the glow of victory rather than highlight the hardship and pain of reality.

Because what’s often not discussed around awards – or the industry as a whole, for that matter – is how fucking stressful it is.

Don’t get me wrong, compared to the stress a nurse, a single parent or someone experiencing unemployment faces, there’s no comparison [unless you’re working in this industry and are a single parent or are going through unemployment] however, that doesn’t mean the stress you feel doing your job is any less real.

But while the impact of stress can be devastating – causing adverse effects to our health, our wellbeing and to our relationships – not all stress is equal.

At least in our industry.

Sure, there’s the really bad kind of it … the stuff that appears on the Corporate Gaslighting blog … but there’s another sort too, and that is very different, even if at the time, you may not recognise it.

You see, when the stress is born from the desire to satisfy your own, or shared vision/curiosity, for an idea – rather than succumbing to the pressure and isolation of others – it can, as Si points out above, be a sign of you simply giving a fuck.

As I’ve written before, it’s not cool to talk about ‘graft’ these days [which is very different to the dangers of ‘hustle culture’] … just like being ’emotional’ at work is a negative … however in our industry, graft … emotion … giving a fuck … are still the ingredients you need to stand any chance of making, doing or creating something special.

We don’t talk about that enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I never want to advocate for stress, but I do want to celebrate craft, creativity and care.

Or should I say, I want the people who act/claim they have all the answers, to respect and acknowledge it … especially as they’ve never made any actual work and haven’t got the faintest fucking idea what it takes or costs to make something proper good … be it commercially, creatively, emotionally or artistically.

And that’s why I want to end this post – and this week – by saying a huge well done to anyone and everyone who put their work out there to be judged and criticised, regardless of the result.

Few would.

Few do.

And that’s you should never feel bad about what you felt or went through.

Because even though what we do is business, the reality is, it’s always personal.