A firing, a joke and a philosophy.

Yesterday, like most other days, there was a big firing on Madison Avenue.

It doesn't matter who or where or what.

Sometimes it's an agency that gets fired by a client.

Sometimes it's a high-falutin' creative big-wig.

Sometimes, like yesterday, it's an agency president.

Like I said, it doesn't really matter who or where or what.

To my eyes, all these firings are faces of the same coin.

Agencies, or clients, or departments were hoping for a quick heroin fix. When that isn't delivered, the axe falls.

There's an old advertising joke I like a lot about a woman who dies and goes to heaven.

St. Peter is interviewing her, looking over her dossier.

"Something doesn't make sense," he says. "You've been married for 25 years and records show you're still a virgin. How do you explain that?"

"Easy," she replies. "My husband was an ad man. Every night, he'd sit on the side of the bed and tell me how great it was going to be."

Here's the truth, the pithy core of the matter.

Work, transformation, business success takes   w   o   r   k.

No pomaded puffin dressed in all-black has a secret formula that will all-at-once back-up a semi filled with $100s to your agency.

Judge people by their track records.

Not their promises.