Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Shit.

“I work at a shit agency.
The accounts are shit.
My working conditions are shit.
We do shitty work.
Management is shit.
The account people are shit.
The planners are shit.
The pay is shit.
It’s in a shitty neighborhood.
Our new business record is shit.
It’s shit.”
--Hundreds of thousands of ad people
from around the world.


I just ran across something in the comments section of Dave Trott’s blog, http://www.cstadvertising.com/blog/2011/04/next/#comments. He wrote this to a reader: “Don’t worry too much about being at a shite agency. From what I hear from people, nowadays everyone thinks they’re at a shite agency. It’s tough everywhere and most ad agencies seem to have lost their way. As Churchill said ‘If you’re going through hell the best thing to do is just keep going.’”

I don’t think you can get better advice anywhere than that which is from Churchill. Just keep going.

Fred, my brother, the lawyer, tells it to me like this. “I say to people ‘I didn’t go to the best college. I didn’t go to the best law school. I don’t work for the biggest firm. I might not be as smart as you. But, I WILL WEAR YOU DOWN. I will work you under the table until you give up.”

Just keep going.
Keep typing.
Keep showing better work.
Keep listening beyond what the client says to what they really need.
Keep working.
Keep writing.
Keep coming back for more.
Keep fighting.

You might be in a shit place.
You probably are.
But if you keep going and you still go down,
at least you’ve gone down fighting.
And with dignity.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

And without a job to take care of the wife, two kids, and three bartenders.

george tannenbaum said...

Well, there's that...

rebrivved said...

You're either the wave. Or the rock. I prefer to be the former.

dave trott said...

George,
I just sent your brother Fred's advice to my daughter, I think she'll love it.

george tannenbaum said...

Ah, Dave, my daughters are 19 and 23, really emerging as vital, brilliant young ladies. It's nice when you and they see how they incorporate an ethos in their lives and then see the success that derives from it.

Michael said...

Two other sayings that may be relevant here:

The cream will always rise to the top - if you are good at what you do, things will work out in the end. Keep the faith in what you believe in

... but on the flip-side

Was it Einstein who defined insanity as "doing the same thing again and again and expecting the result to be different"?

Keep your head down ... but make sure you lift it from time to time to make sure you are going in the right direction

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