Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Ambition, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Communication Strategy, Consultants, Creativity, Culture, Distinction, Emotion, Innovation, Insight, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Provocative, Reputation, Resonance, Respect, Strategy
Insights aren’t very fashionable these days.
Seen as outdated and derivative or increasingly reduced to nothing more than a basic observation of human behaviour, increasingly favored by creative teams who think it justifies whatever execution they are about to detail … despite the fact it often is not true, or addresses a totally different issue than the one that needs the focus of their attention and talent.
Put simply, what passes for an insight these days is a lot of ‘what’ when it needs to be a lot more about ‘why’.
No wonder insights are so out of favor … however while I agree they are hard to find and should not be limited to just one area of focus, I think they are still the most powerful way to make stuff people find powerful.
Of course, what you do with them is what matters most.
Having an execution that just dramatizes the insight is rarely good work – albeit better than creative that just executes the brief – but a great insight opens up possibilities, rather than closes them off.
Recently I saw this and immediately connected to it …
Now I appreciate this is more ‘what’ than ‘why’ …
I also get it’s more universal than personal …
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t pierce a deeply held truth most people will feel.
I know I do …
Sending Sarah Holtham my first ever Valentines day card [aged 6]. Going down the ‘big slide’ at Greenhorn Drive park. Lying at the very end of a row of my mates as someone jumps over us on their BMX bike via a badly constructed ‘ramp’ that consists of some flimsy piece of wood and bricks we found lying around the new build housing estate. Going for my first band audition. Driving to Scotland in a convoy then driving all the way back. Going to North Korea. Trying different foods. Moving overseas to be close to a girl I’d met in the UK.
So much of my life – the big stuff and the small – is down to one of my mates giving me a countdown to courage.
And while those days are far more my history than my present, their impact remains.
So while I appreciate age means you’re more aware of what could go wrong … the reality is most of the things you did because of a friends encouragement turned out to be OK. Great even. And even if they went wrong, it wasn’t the end of the world and you have it as both a lesson for what to do next time and a story to remember a life well lived.
Because for all the people selling their ‘for profit’ systems and processes on how to do things ‘right’ … the reality is most of them are designed to kill the possibility and excitement of our curiosity, discovery and inventiveness. Or said another way, they leave you where you already are rather than take you to where you could be … which is why I’m still a disciple of the insight, because they open the door to what could be next rather than nailing it closed under the guise of ‘protecting you from things that could go wrong’.
We need more friends giving us a ‘countdown to courage’ rather than guru’s telling us to be sensible with where we are. Not because I am a commercially irresponsible, but because we’re all in danger of going to the same place that everyone else is going. Which means the winners will be the ones who are the biggest, rather than the ones who want to do things in better ways.
And like in life, the things that define us came from those who pushed and challenged us.
Not because they wanted us to fail, but because they wanted us to live, experience and grow.
Talking of growing …
I’m in NY all next week doing some stuff that will stretch my experience, knowledge – and most probably – a bunch of other people’s patience [haha] so enjoy the silence and see you in 8 days. Make the most of it …
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Ambition, Apple, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Delusion, Empathy, Finance, Generosity, Money, Privilege, Reputation, Technology
On Tuesday I wrote about how we have our priorities messed up …
If you haven’t read it, you can see it here.
The underlying point being we seem to accept the shitty behaviour of the super rich, but are hyper-critical of the humble – even though we know the former are making choices to become even richer whereas the latter are simply trying to survive.
In the post, I highlighted a valuable lesson I learned when I was starting out in my career from my then client – and now mentor – the wonderful Lee Hill.
He told me:
“There’s nothing wrong making lots of money, it’s how you do it and what you do with it that counts”.
It would be easy to think that in this Trumpian, authoritarian World, the ability to be ‘decent and rich’ is a pipe dream.
But I remember many years ago, George interviewed a bunch of wealthy people for a project we were doing at Cynic and came back saying he had discovered a group he called ‘the reluctantly rich’.
Basically, these were people who had made a lot of money but never felt they deserved it.
Maybe they inherited it, maybe they were in the right place at the right time … maybe they were just lucky … but they didn’t connect to it so did all they could to be generous to others with it.
Some to that was because it helped offset their guilt a little bit.
Some was their way to let others experience what they were going through.
But most of it was simply because they wanted to help others who hadn’t been blessed with the good fortune they’d received.
Often this was done quietly and privately because the goal was never about recieving gratitude, they just wanted to do some good with it, helped by the fact they never felt connected to the cash, so giving it away was easy … even though they were perfectly aware of what it offered and could do.
Admittedly there weren’t masses of people who felt this way, but there were more than a few.
Still are.
I say this because recently I saw a video of Steve Wozniak – Woz – the co-founder of Apple.
At a time where Musk, Bezos, Zuck and countless other ultra-wealthy tech and finance bros revel in their elitist, vulgar, arrogant lifestyles, he is a reminder of when the tech industry consisted of a few people trying stuff they hoped could help millions grow, express and explore their lives … which is a world away from where we are today, where the tech industry seems to be a few people designing products that enable them to control, contain and restrain millions for their own, fucked-up benefit.
So thank you Mr Woz, you’ve just proved you don’t have to be a prick to be rich.
It just feels that way.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Business, Community, Consultants, Corporate Evil
Big business increases prices/loses people for profit protection.
Small business increases prices/loses people for survival.
One gets grudgingly accepted. The other gets openly criticised.
And at a time where we ‘welcome’ humanities first ever trillionaire, maybe this is the wake-up call to start questioning both where we’re heading and what big business – and many of the Linkedin crowd – view as aspirational.
As one of my great mentors, the brilliant Lee Hill, told me when I was new in the industry and disliking/not trusting anyone who was wealthy [and he was/is exceedingly wealthy], “there’s nothing wrong with people or companies making money, it’s how they do it and what they do with it”.
That’s a question we should be asking a lot more …
… both of ourselves and most definitely of others.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Apathy, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Content, Context, Corporate Evil, Corporate Gaslighting, Curiosity, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Egovertising, EvilGenius, Experience, Facebook, Influencers, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Marketing Science, Perspective, Planning, Point Of View, Popularity, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Research, Resonance, Respect, Ridiculous, Strategy, Stubborness, Technology, Toxic Positivity, Trust, Truth
When I was growing up there was a newspaper cartoon called ‘Andy Capp’.
Andy was a cliche of the working-class – albeit he never actually works – and lives in Hartlepool in the North East of England.
Andy is married to his long suffering wife, Flo – and despite her working – they are almost on the verge of poverty because apart from Andy being unemployed, he lacks any motivation and thinks he can ‘beat the system’ because of his smarts.
By that, think early stage manosphere but replacing the sexualization of women with more pure sexism.
Anyway, the reason I say this is because I remember one cartoon where Flo told Andy that they were in debt to the tune of £1000.
To which Andy replied something like:
“I told you Flo, if you owe £100 you’re a failure. If you owe £1000 you’re an entrepreneur. If you owe a £10,000 you’re a businessman and if you owe £1,000,000 you’re a government. So what this means Flo, is we’re on the way up!”
I don’t know why I remember that cartoon among the millions of things I’ve seen over the years – but it has always left a lasting impression on me, which may explain why I’ve tended to only seek – or listen to – the advice I’ve got from people who either failed trying or succeeded by doing. Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Yet everyday I read/hear/watch people spouting unsolicited advice about subjects they have almost zero right or credibility to do – mistaking opinion as fact, interest as knowledge, knowledge as expertise or ego as cleverness.No wonder a famous football manager once told me to always learn from winners, not players.
Look, I get we all do this to some degree, but there’s a big difference between spouting an opinion or perspective and acting like you’re the indisputable, all-knowing, God-of-all.
The point is, regardless what Andy Capp says, we would not take his proclamations as fact.
We might accept it’s what he thinks is fact, but not what is true for all.
And yet, more and more, I’m witnessing business blindly follow the statements and proclamations of people who are the real-life, modern version of Andy Capp.
Kinda.
Because while they DO have jobs … and while they have even been successful in them … they are now telling people how to succeed in areas they have absolutely no right to talk about.
Not just because many have never worked in those areas, but they have a track record of making terrible choices when developing ideas outside of their core area of knowledge.
Enter Mark Zuckerberg.
I’m not doubting he’s smart.
I’m not doubting he loves technology.
I’m not even doubting his successes.
However, why are so many people listening [and investing] in his version of the future when not only is it designed around his ego and need for power and control – not to mention his desperation to be talked about in the same breath as Steve Jobs – this is a person who spent/blew/lost US$80 BILLION on the Metaverse??
EIGHTY. FUCKING. BILLION. DOLLARS.
I get innovation is expensive.
I appreciate all technology needs time to evolve.
I acknowledge that I have two of their Quest headsets.
But 80 billion?
To put it in context, the iPhone is said to have cost anywhere between $150 million and $3.2 billion. The creation of Google Maps is said to have cost around $1 billion to initially develop. Even the A380 aircraft – the biggest passenger aircraft in the history of aviation – ‘only’ cost around $25-35 billion to build.
And to add even more context …
80 billion dollars is the equivalent of being the 90th placed country in the World by GDP.
OK, so Zuck’s 80 billion was spent over a long period of time compared to how GFP figures are calculated, but still …
In fact, this suggests Zuck is someone who stubbornly believes he is always right.
Or at the very least, refuses to acknowledge where things aren’t working or where things need improving.
Sadly, we see this same sort of arrogance in our industry …
Where someone is successful in a particular disciple or with a particular agency or with a particular piece of work or with a particular promotion… and then suddenly, they believe they are more knowledgable, more successful and more authoritative than every other person in every other industry regardless of their actual level of experience and expertise.
And what is worse is they get away with it …
Because like Zuck, too many people hang onto their words like gospel, even though in many ways they’re speaking the same delusional clap-trap as Andy Capp, which suggests 2 uncomfortable truths.
1. The real problem with ego is not the person spouting the nonsense, but the people who choose to believe loud confidence over real experience.
2. Andy Capp may have been right because it does seem in business. ‘the more you lose, the more people believe you’re a success’.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Corporate Evil, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Leadership, Loyalty, Management, Passion, Stress
Over the years I’ve written a lot about companies viewing ‘emotional people’ as problems.
Viewing them as too passionate.
Too dramatic.
Too impatient.
But the reality is, emotion means you give a fuck and I’d rather have that than work with robots who efficiently execute what’s needed without ever wishing to add, elevate or challenge the status quo.
Of course, the irony is the companies who criticise employees for caring deeply about what they do, tend to also expect their people to be disproportionately passionate and loyal about the company – but guess what fuckers, you can’t have one without the other.
Now I appreciate there are different ways to express emotion …
And when it becomes about what YOU want versus what you want the work to be – they’re very different things.
But having people who care … who deeply want to do the right thing, the better thing and the new thing … is creatively and commercialy far more valuable – let alone interesting – than having an entire department of drones. And yet in these optimisation obsessed times, companies have decided the opposite is true.
Which leads to the point of this post.
Recently I saw this clip of Robert Glasper playing Radiohead’s ‘Everything In It’s Right Place’.
In it, you witness Robert crying as he plays the piece.
The emotional impact he feels because of the piece.
It’s not ego.
It’s not performative.
It’s pure, unfiltered emotion. For a piece of music he didn’t write but feels deeply connected to.
So connected, he gives his all in performing it. To honour what it means to him and what he hopes the audience will get from it.
In many ways, it’s one of the most selfless, geneous acts you could ever witness.
Something I am sure Radiohead would feel honoured by, rather than say:
“Robert … Robert … stop being so emotional about the music. It makes us feel uncomfortable and we don’t know how to deal with it”.
Because that’s the thing … the issue of emotion is not about the person feeling it, but the people who never can.
Who are so disconnected to what they do, the only thing they value is the checklist of what has been done.
Because for them, quality isn’t the goal, it’s productivity.
People who care about what they do and what the company does, is a gift.
It’s why we have to put an end to this false narrative of them being a problem … because they provide life to what so many senior leaders destroy.
Enjoy.