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

More money than my parents ever earned – quite possibly in their entire lifetime – which was pretty horrific given they were not just smarter and better people than I’ll ever be, but did jobs that were more meaningful than advertising will ever be.

But within days of starting, I knew the money I earned wasn’t enough.

Not enough for what they expected from me.

By that I don’t mean workload.

Nor do I mean pressure.

But complicity.

When I landed the job, I had assumed the cash was to compensate for my experience.

I was wrong.

Sure, my experience got me their attention … but what the cash was really for was my blind adherence to the rules of what had gone before.

Or said another way: Ask no questions. Provide no challenges. Have no opinions.

Which was a problem given I am a person who always has questions and opinions.

Not to be an asshole – at least most of the time – but to better understand the decisions people were making or thinking of making.

Don’t get me wrong, the people at this company were smart. They were also generally good people. But the way they ran the company was based on very different values and rules that I shared or believed.

That’s on me for not really delving into it in the interview process … but in my defense, I was truly ‘me’ in the interview process whereas they were, errrrm, less so. But they soon realized the error of their ways when they discovered that while they obviously had loved the idea of me, they pretty much hated the reality of me.

And yet their way of dealing with it was to double-down on control. It’s why I used a photo of the movie The Firm at the top of this post because there were many a day where I honestly thought I was living the advertising version of it.

But if truth be told, I knew even then there were some major red flags even in the interview process – and while I raised them – the money and the situation I was in, tipped my hand in their favour.

It was a lesson that ended up being very costly to me – at least emotionally – but it also was very useful and important, reinforcing the economic value of creative fulfillment.

Now I appreciate I’m hardly on struggle street and am perfectly aware of my good fortune, but in an industry – or maybe a world – where they suggest the only way to deem success is to continually earn more and more cash, the fact is that compared to the salary I was earning then, I’m literally miles and miles and miles away from it and yet I’m also light years ahead in terms of the happiness, creative fulfillment and strategic curiosity I get to enjoy every fucking day.

It’s not all their fault … but a lot it.

And I can’t deny some good did came out of the whole thing …

I got a new life experience of living in yet another country to add to my list of places I’ve lived plus I got the pleasure of meeting and working with some incredibly talented, good humans who are very much still part of my life today. But eve with that, I do look back at the overall experience less positively, ‘topped off’ by the way they tried to fuck with my future when I told them I didn’t want to keep working with them.

But here’s the thing that has left me feeling good about this chapter in my life …

When I was going to resign, I told a friend of mine who was literally earning a single digit percentage of what I was earning.

He knew my salary and just couldn’t contemplate why I would give up my job when – in his mind – I had hit the jackpot.

And I get it … I really do … but I had learned that when a company pays you that much money, it’s not about talent, it’s about control.

Some can do it, I absofuckinglutely can’t.

And while I don’t begrudge those who stick things out for a bigger future, I have to say I now look back and feel very fucking proud that the things that keep me energized and excited are the work, the standards and the values rather than the cash. That doesn’t mean I don’t want my experience to not be financially compensated for, but it does mean the work I do has a value to me that transcends just money.

Of course I get this comes from a real position of privilege – one not many get to enjoy – but it is also a privilege that I can say has cost me to attain … which makes a nice change.

So the point is, money is important, fulfillment is equally important … and too often we ignore that, thinking that the more cash we have the more life we have and I hate to tell you, but that does not actually equate.

So be careful out there.

Money is obviously very important, but loving what you do can change your life just as much.

And with that, you’re free from me till Monday. So have a peaceful time – but hopefully not as peaceful as a particular person out there – who I am thinking of and proud as fuck of. Hopefully they know who they are. If they read this bloody blog, hahaha. See you next week.