Figuring out what we do.

I have a dread fear of not performing. Of not coming through. Of being unreliable. Or inadequate.

I am someone people--clients and agencies and colleagues--count on. Trust.

I don't want to fall short.

Career-wise, it's a good thing to be neurotic.

It means you are bound to over-deliver. To think things through and derive multiple alternatives.

Even in this blog I don't like not having a post first thing in the morning.

I feel I have an obligation, an intrinsic desire to fulfill. I don't like the idea of letting my few readers down.

It's funny to me how important my readership (my clients) are to me.

And how unimportant customers are to most clients.

They stuff them in too-small seats.

They confuse and addlepate with legal copy.

They seduce with "come-ons" then fail to deliver.

From a CMO point of view, the world should be a fairly simple place.

Figure out what you do and do it unfailingly.

(And if you do fuck up, admit it, apologize and make good.)

As the CMO of Ad Aged my mission is clear.

I try to write something interesting, funny, intelligent or thought-provoking everyday.

That's the job I signed up for when I started doing this.

So, I do it.

When you work in an ad agency, as I have for almost 30 years, you more often than not see a different, more complicated reality.

I suppose because so many people need to earn their keep, we have become complication machines.

There are very few companies or agencies that could answer my brief above: To figure out what you do and do it unfailingly.

100 years ago or more, British Suffragists came out with a great viral campaign. It worked.

I seldom today see anything nearly as clear.

I seldom leave a meeting without saying to my partner or myself: what is it we need to do.

We need to figure out what we do.