Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Career, Collaboration, Colleagues, Complicity, Confidence, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture
A long time ago, I read an article about a former fashion executive who was talking about what he had learned in his life.
It was a powerful piece, because the individual had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and literally had 12 months to live.
I was young and can’t quite remember how I came across the article, but I remember 2 very significant quotes he gave that have stayed with me for decades.
The first was how he had always thought he would decide when to change jobs … until one day, he discovered he was going to be fired.
His point was that regardless what your title is, regardless how important you think you are and regardless how much power and influence you think you hold … you never decide when it’s time to leave a company, they do.
They may show it by firing you.
They may show it by choosing not to promote you.
They may show it by turning down your application for a vacation.
But one way or another – directly or indirectly – it’s the company who holds the power and the sooner we all realise this, the sooner we will, ironically, gain far more influence and power over our choices and decisions.
I say this because about a year ago, I said to my dear friend Paula Bloodworth, how I had recently realized what a pain-in-the-arse I must be as an employee.
She looked at me with an expression that said ‘No Shit’, until she said to me, “No Shit“.
That doesn’t mean I went out of my way to cause problems, it just means I had the attitude that for all the things I no doubt do badly, there’s no way someone is ever going to be able to say I haven’t given my all to make something great happen. Doesn’t mean I will always pull it off – far from it actually – but it does mean I’ll never back away the challenge and that I expect those around me to want to aim for the same standards as me.
Which sounds toxic-as-shit when you write it down, but just to be clear I’m fine with failing … I’m just not fine with ‘not trying’. Frankly, I haven’t got the time or patience to waste on that approach to life and I think part of the reason for that is because of reading that article many years ago.
Now I appreciate that sounds a convenient excuse to justify my attitude – and the truth is, there are/were many other factors that have driven me in my career, of which not being great at school exams is one of them – however I clearly remember how I felt when I read that article for the first time. In many ways, it triggered a ‘lightbulb’ moment in me, ensuring I would give as much time and energy as I could to make good things happen at the highest level while also having as many fingers in as many creative pies as I could.
Not just to learn, grow, explore and evolve … but also to help protect myself as best I could from the company politics, agendas and mismanagement I read were everywhere, whether you saw them or not.
Now whether this has worked out for me is for you to decide, but from a personal perspective, I am pretty sure the life I enjoy would not have happened without that approach … and that’s taking into account the huge amount of luck I’ve had along the way.
Which leads to the second thing the fashion exec said.
A thing that – in many ways is a byproduct of the first lesson, albeit something he was to discover for the very worst of reasons.
The importance of prioritization.
As I mentioned, this executive had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He didn’t have much time and didn’t want to waste any of it.
So he drew a a bunch of circles around each other – small to big, like a giant bullseye – and plotted the names of people he knew in different parts of the image. Names in the middle/bullseye were the people closest and most important to him … whereas those going further out, were less so.
This formed the basis of who he was going to spend and dedicate his remaining time with.
Anyone outside the first 2 circles were sent a letter, explaining his situation … thanking them for their relationship and saying that because of the limited time left, he would appreciate it if they did not take up any more of his time with goodbyes.
However for those in the inner circles – the people who meant the most to him – he dedicated his remaining time. Actively seeking to bathe in their presence and energy. Making sure everything that had to be said and shared was fully expressed.
In essence, he discovered that time was precious.
Now I am not dying – at least no faster than everyone else is, I hope – but I am reaching a period in my life where I am choosing to limit where my energies are spent. Not because I have less energy to express – in fact, thanks to getting healthy, I arguably have more than ever – but because I realise I want to ensure the people who matter most to me, truly feel how much they mean to me.
That is not saying they haven’t had that, but the older I get, the more it has become very important to me that they know it.
That does not mean I am not going to be there for anyone who wants to chat or ask advice.
That is also very important to me – and I say that as a grateful recipient, not just a questionable provider – however in the past few years, I realized I had been prioritizing others needs over the people who should be expecting it from me the most. Somewhere along the line, I had got things mixed up and that had led to a few people expecting me to fit in with their needs and never consider mine. Let me be very clear – it was never their fault – the fact is I had allowed it, but the realization was pretty uncomfortable for me because frankly, as much as I care for a lot of people, I love very few and it was time to reorg my time to ensure my focus was on them as my priority.
This is quite hard to write because it sounds like I am angry or upset at people – but I’m not. I am definitely angry and upset with myself but that’s it. Actually, that’s not true … I’m also pissed off at a particular person in NZ who I had gone out of my way to help – way before moving here – only to realise they were a complete user and I had been too slow/naive/generous to realise that until it was a bit late. That said, when I did, they were the one that had helped me realise that I needed to prioritize where my energy was spent.
Which is a long winded way to say that sometimes, it takes a long time to really learn a lesson. Or the whole lesson.
So while I will always be creatively ambitious.
While I will always be open to the new and interesting.
And while I’ll always be there for anyone who wants/needs to chat.
I’ll be prioritizing the people who are the reason I am able to do all of that.
Put simply, I’ll alway make time, I’ll always find time … but I can no longer just blindly give time.
Not now.
Which is why I hope the fashion exec who is the heart of this post – and is long gone now – somehow knows that his story impacted a life for a big part of their life. And I’ll be forever grateful to them for that.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Context, Creativity, Culture, Dad, Education, Effectiveness, Emotion, History, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, R/GA, Wieden+Kennedy
In his iconic Ted Talk speech, ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity’, the great Sir Ken Robinson wondered what Shakespear was like …
When he was a child …
At school …
In English class.
I still remember how it felt when I heard him say that, because frankly … I never had thought of Shakespear as a kid.
Hell, in many ways, I didn’t even think of him as a real person, as my only exposure to him had been through books and films … which all reinforces what the great Bob Greenberg, co-founder of R/GA, used to say, which was:
“People know you how they’re introduced to you”.
It seems obvious, but we continually forget it.
It’s why there’s a whole generation who know Jordan as a shoe brand more than an iconic basketballer … know Wieden+Kennedy as a brilliant ad agency rather than the outcome of two brilliant – but spotlight-reluctant – humans coming together to make anything but ‘ads’ … and know the Mona Lisa as a painting, rather than a portrait.
This last one is especially pertinent because I recently saw this …
… and yes, like Sir Ken’s comment on Shakespear, I was faced with the realization that the Mona Lisa was a person before a painting.
Too often we base our viewpoints on the mistaken belief that history only starts when we discover it … which may explain why there’s so much stuff spouted on Linkedin that suggests a person has just created something radical, when in reality it’s just a new take on an old lesson.
Which is why it may be useful if we all followed the advice my Dad always encouraged when exposed to something new.
In essence he asked himself – or others – 3 questions.
What do you know about them?
What do others know about them – that you don’t?
What can you know about them that will tell you who they are or how they got here?
It ensured he was always able to talk from the context of history and present … ensuring his viewpoint was grounded in truth but wrapped in modern contexts and perspectives. Which means, for someone who wasn’t a strategist, he was a fucking brilliant strategist.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Childhood, Comment, Dad, Daddyhood, Death, Family, Home, Love, Loyalty, Mum & Dad, My Childhood, Nottingham
I watched something recently that made me happy, jealous and sad all at the same time.
I know … I know … they’re the sort of emotional extremes you’d normally associate with a psychopath – but hang in there.
I’ve written a lot about how much I loved my parents. How much I still do.
So many of the decisions and choices I’ve made in my life have been influenced by me wanting them to feel proud of me – even though they’re no longer here and I know very clearly that they were already.
But despite that, I still do stuff that is driven by a desire to thank them for being brilliant parents … to let them know that despite all the moments of ‘stupidity’ that I have embraced throughout my life, the lessons, encouragement and love they continually showed me, were never taken for granted.
Even more so because they never wanted anything from me.
Nor did they ever ask anything of me.
All they desired was that I choose a life of fulfillment over contentment.
It took me a long time to work out what that meant, but once I had worked it out – it fundamentally changed how I lived my life. Giving me clarity at times of confusion or complexity. Hell, it’s one of the main reasons I didn’t go back to the UK when I faced some truly challenging situations while living overseas … because even though I knew they’d love it if I’d gone back [and I’d have loved it too] – I felt I would be disrespecting the gift they’d given me by encouraging me go and explore the world when they were facing such personal hardship through Dad’s illness.
We talked a lot about this when Dad became ill.
I was due to go to Australia when Dad had his stroke. Suddenly I didn’t want to go … I wanted to stay with them and help, which was my new plan right until the moment I told my parents about it.
“NO!” they said.
This was not something they were willing to allow.
Of course they massively appreciated the consideration, but they wanted me to go and live my life rather than – as they saw it – be held back by their situation. Given how hard their situation was, it is fair to say that no one – least of all me – would have blamed them if they had asked me to stay, but they didn’t and I think part of that is because they knew that had I not gone then, I would never have left … and that was an outcome they were never going to allow.
That does not mean life wouldn’t have been good if I had stayed – I loved my parents and I loved Nottingham – but it is also fair to say the life I get to live and enjoy now is nothing like the one I would have experienced if I’d remained. As I’ve written many times before, everything I have in my life today, bar my relationship with my best friend Paul, is because I left the UK.
My family.
My career.
My lifestyle.
My experience.
My experiences.
Every single bit of it … which is why their actions are not only an incredible example of ‘unconditional love’, but also proof of how well my parents knew who I was and – with a bit of encouragement – who I could be.
What a gift.
What generosity.
Which may explain why I felt such a compulsion to repay their love. I don’t mean that just in terms of chasing a life of fulfillment, but in trying to help them make their life easier, happier and – dare I say it – more comfortable.
You see, whatever way you look at it, life wasn’t easy for them. In fact it never was.
Money was always very tight and now, with Dad’s health – and Mum caring for him 24/7 – it had now become even harder.
And while I did what I could, I was not earning the money that would allow me to do what I really wanted for them which was:
Pay off the house and buy Dad a yellow 1970’s, Rolls Royce with white-walled wheels.
In that order.
But hope and reality are separate beasts and even if I could have pulled it off, I know they would have lost their shit over it, because to them, they’d tell me I should be focusing on my future, not theirs.
Which leads me back to the beginning of this post and how I saw a clip that made me feel happy, jealous and sad all at the same time … because I got to watch a kid do this for his parents. Not the Rolls Royce bit, but the house.
I love it.
I love the reaction of the Father.
The slow realisation followed by the cavalcade of emotions …. pride, relief, gratitude and love.
I can only imagine how good the son felt to be able to do that for his folks.
And while my parents did – in the end – get to pay off the family home, it was not because of me but because of an insurance payout they received for a car accident they’d been involved in 5 years prior. And while I wish they hadn’t had to experience the accident to be able to pay off the home, I also know how happy it made my parents – especially my Dad, who knew he was nearing the end of life and so it reassured him Mum would be safe – but even then, I still wish I’d been able to do this for them.
Of course – as my career took off – I was able to repay/spoil/look after my Mum – but while I may still look at that clip with a mixture of emotions, I comfort myself knowing it has nothing really to do with buying your parents a home and everything to do with celebrating a loving, caring family and viewed through that lens … I know my parents knew how grateful I was for all they did and all they were.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Chinese Culture, Creativity, Culture, Devious Strategy, Effectiveness, Imagination, Innovation, Perspective, Planning
I’ve written about something I call ‘devious strategy’ for a long time.
In essence, it’s the art of giving people what they want but in a way where they give you exactly what you need from them.
While I’ve covered a bunch of examples in the past – from how Daniel Radcliffe stopped the paparazzi photographing him each night after his theatre performance through to how singer Grace Slick, got Chick-fil-A to pay the LGBTQ+ community to lobby against themselves – the reality is the ultimate Champions of this strategic approach are without doubt, the Chinese Government.
Their ingenuity knows no bounds.
Sure, some of the reasons for this is not great … but let’s be honest, how they ensure people ask for receipts in restaurants so they can ensure they can get the correct amount of tax due to them, is sheer genius.
But I recently learned of a variant of this approach that is less about ‘achieving a favorable solution’ and more about ‘making the problem more difficult for people to ignore’ … and funnily enough, it also comes from the evil genius brains of government.
This time, from local government in Glasgow, Scotland.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls … allow me to introduce you to Leverage Pettiness Strategy™, and before anyone tells me that’s bullshit, just remember our industry once gave an ‘effectiveness’ award to a supermarket chain for sales growth DURING COVID.
By that reckoning, changing the name of a road should win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Filed under: Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Consultants, Contribution, Creative Development, Creativity, Dance, Devious Strategy
After the relatively heavy post of yesterday, let’s go on a tangent that I am pretty certain even a protractor wouldn’t be able to measure.
This is a post about dance.
That’s 6 words I am pretty sure you never thought you’d read on here.
But the reality is, I am pretty besotted with dance, just like I am pretty besotted with anything when the person doing it is not only good at it, but is committed to being their best at it, in the moment they are doing it.
That’s more than just talent, that’s a commitment to your own representation and recently I saw the incredible Farrah Ozuuna Wilson, perform a masterclass in giving your all.
It was this.
Now it is pretty obvious Farrah Ozuuna Wilson is – among other things – a professional dancer, but my god, I must have watched this clip of her a hundred times.
I love it.
I love the moment she ‘switches’ from casual to fully committed.
She’s all in, take-no-prisoners, fierce as absolute fuck.
It’s beautiful, frightening, inspiring and exhausting all at the same time.
And yet you come away from it in awe …
Not just at her obvious talent, nor to the obvious hours, months and years she has put into being brilliant at her art … but to her dedication to ensuring when she performs, she will leave nothing to be second guessed or misinterpreted.
You may not like it.
You may not understand it.
But you sure-as-shit are going to know everything she did was her choice and decision.
And yet, you are in absolute no doubt she is enjoying herself.
Both in terms of the control she has over her entire body and the power she can create, generate and express with every part of it.
This is an athlete performing at the peak of their powers.
Unstoppable.
Unquestionable.
Playing to win, never to just get by.
Michael Jordan was the same.
A relentless desire to be great at all costs.
Never phoning it in. Never accepting good enough. Never just being interested.
And while that didn’t guarantee he’d always win, it did guarantee he was always committed to the core. And demanded that of those who were around him – because as amazing as he was, he still knew he needed them to raise their game to stand a chance of getting the result his standards and ambition needed.
And that’s why I love how Farrah dances, because we are witnessing seeing someone who respects their art and themselves enough to always go all in on all they do.
So if a bald, white, 54 year old – who has no dancing talent or experience – can see it, you can be sure people can tell the difference between a brand who means what they say or is spouting ‘purpose bollocks’ in the mistaken belief people can’t tell the difference or worse, their marketing team don’t know the difference.
The reality is truth is more than just what you say.
It’s also more than just what you do … even if it is following the rules someone else has said needs to be adhered to.
It is – as in most things in life – always about how you do it and that is never impacted by place, time or occasion.
There’s a lot we can learn from Farrah, and it’s transcends her incredible ability in dance.