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Showing posts with label Love Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love Change. Show all posts

Let’s go

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If you want something, go get it. Period.


I fully believe in this, nobody is going to push to achieve what’s best for you more than you.
This doesn’t become truer than when you discuss what you want with others and they fail to follow through with what you know is best for you.

I’m referring to my last move to an agency that I thought held the same values as I did.
To be honest I knew the role wasn’t right from the get go but felt I could make it my own and that the opportunities raw materials were there to do so successfully. As the Pareto principle states, you only need 20% of the raw materials to get 80% of the effects. It became apparent over time the 20% wasn’t up for grabs.

The thing is and the advice you usually receive when you do realise the role, place and everything else isn’t what you thought it was going to be, or what you could make it is to just play the game and continue to get on with it. I mean lets be honest that is a lot of peoples game plan.

Life is short though, at the end of the day having a frank discussion with a few people gives you the answer you need and you just have to ask yourself, can I get what I wanted, produce what I know I can or get even close to the reason that I moved here.

I’m disappointed it didn’t work out, like any other kind of relationship, but shit happens. Thankfully I do like putting myself into situations that I feel uncomfortable in, as that’s how you inoculate yourself to making mistakes when you’re afraid. The only annoying thing is, when you are inoculated, dealt with the problem in question and the situation hasn’t continued to improve and evolve. You are fighting the same disease over and over again in slightly different guises.

So I have been inoculated to a variety of different things, most of which were very similar to each other. I don’t make the same mistake twice, so let’s go and make some cool stuff happen.


As Ne-Yo said:
It’s not about what you’ve done
It’s about what you’re doing
It’s all about where you going
No matter where you’ve been
Let’s go!
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Made to believe in doing something different*

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*I’m not sure what different means, I just know that when I interviewed for new employment its ratio to the usage of any other word was formidable, although that is more than likely a flaw in my vocabulary.
 I’ve been working at my new gaff for a little while now. I’ve ended up going to a place that stood out a bit from what is a wide landscape of carbon copy bricks and mortar in different wrappers, and the wrappers aren’t really that different. I’ve come to realise due to the incestuous nature of talent and client pressures you're unlikely to walk through the doors or into a conversation that doesn’t feel like Groundhog Day.

Having said that I am fascinated by adland. I constantly find myself reading into agencies propositions and new entrants that state they are something different. There is some interesting stuff going on with the whole ‘integrated’ offering that agencies want to put on the table for clients, the truth is though not many deliver it. This does become a bit of a frustration as not many places seem to really understand what it is they offer, it’s just whatever encapsulates everything you think needs to be there; data, brand, social, experiential etc etc.

The reality that I understood was at this point in my career I have nothing to lose, it’s just all about playing the landscape that’s there and as long as I’m learning as much as possible and facing different variations of challenges there can be no bad decisions. I wasn’t getting the challenges I needed in my previous place, although it did give me a lot from the beginning, so the best thing for me (and it is of course a selfish decision) was to leave on the best terms possible and keep moving forward.

The things I bought into through the interviews at my new place were luckily supported in the first few weeks #1 Getting the right people interested and into a room to meet a cool new start-up to help collaborate on projects, that really are doing different stuff #2 The proud display and discussion of their work and #3 There honestly was an entrepreneurial spirit that allowed for a slightly different approach with briefs.

As I continue my journey though I am starting to loose faith in the adland model and the part I can play to avoid being a robot in a machine. I don’t know if advertising can continue to be the answer to do so, all I know is I will try my hardest to not be part of the monotony that my future may face.

*Please note the word ‘different’ has only been used 8 times in the article you have just read.

And here’s my leaving speech that I recently got sent, I was 9 pints in at the time which may explain why I look a bit spaced out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5RQ8Mttw9o.

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Loving Change

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I've decided to add a new area to the MTB blog in homage to my past company. ‘Love Change’ is perhaps not the best slogan for a company to live by, as having now left the company I have truly embraced it. As an individual however, Love Change is most definitely a very important aspect of life.

I have decided to leave my past employer. As it can become true with most strategies, you realise your positioning and direction has gone as far as it can within its current environment.

Also what I have found to become true when looking for a new challenge, with uncertainty comes less change. People lock themselves down within their current roles, securing their niche and go into safe mode forgetting about the aspirations they may have had to progress. Recruiters explained to me repeatedly about how employees are more interested in trying to protect themselves against the change their company may be pushed to inflict against them.

We surely all want to be in control of our own destinies and by wrapping ourselves up in a corporate protective blanket this does quite the opposite. This also leads to a less profitable company and strategically it’s not going to allow us to keep pace with the East, or even get out of the economic trough we sit in.   

I hate to throw the phrase of ‘in these economic times’ around negatively as I believe its times like these that you can really make a name for yourself. It shouldn't be something used in order to justify delay or safety.

I have no interest in stagnating. I know that if we do love change and aspire to take on new challenges and achieve new goals we won’t be following companies like:
-Kodak failing to recognise the importance of digital cameras
-Sony unable to keep control of the portable music market on from the Walkman
-Blockbuster not realising the shift to digital movie rental

All I know is we all have goals we wish to achieve. If the goals we have set for ourselves are challenging enough then we will need to change certain things to achieve them, lets not allow ourselves to fall into limbo.

Good old Walt Disney has something to add:

"In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future." —Walt Disney
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