You rarely raised your hand in class. When you had free time, you buried your head in books. You thought being sent to your room was pretty cool.
You, my friend, are a natural born leader.
Huh?
Yep, that’s what this article says. And it uses some pretty high-profile examples (Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Charles Schwab) to make its point.
It all may seems a bit counterintuitive, especially when you see some of the flashier ‘rock stars’ in our business getting all of the attention. No doubt, those high-energy ‘Type A’ people can be …

I was traveling around the US the other day to work on  a shoot.
And in my hotel, next to the cereal dispenser, I found it.
A box of milk with a label saying: 2% of milk. As I never drink milk, it was a revelation for me: they are making milk with no milk.
Later that day, I went to a convenience store, bought a bottle of “Lemonade” and looked at the label again. Surprise: 0% lemon juice.
We live in an age where nothing is what it was supposed to be. Milk, …

Sometimes we forget that we are all in the dopamine business.
More than anything else, our job as marketers is to create a brand experience that fires off synapse explosions in the target consumer’s lower frontal lobe, triggering the secretion of dopamine. It sounds harder to do than it actually is. We experience these reactions every day, whenever we taste something weird or delicious, listen to Kanye, or search the web for photos of grown men wearing baby bonnets.
These are the very reactions that make people do the things they do. …

Randy Sandy was a professional boxer back in the 50s. His career record was a very symmetrical 24-24-2.
If he worked in advertising, he’d be considered an expert.
Why?
Because we value experience over expertise. We value consistency over curiosity.
Just keep doing what you’re doing, don’t rock the boat and don’t stick your neck out. You will be rewarded with bonuses, promotions and features in Adweek and AdAge.
We have created a culture where failure is the worst thing that can happen. This is just flat out stupid.
Failure is a necessary by-product of innovation. …

You ever spend 2 hours online just checking out ad agency websites?
Or blow an hour scrolling through twitter feeds of your favorite creatives?
How about spending half a day reading up on financial planning because you have an ad due in 3 days on that very subject?
A little obsessive? Maybe. Good for your career? Absolutely.
The only way to get really good at something is to obsess about it. You think Beethoven had only a passing interest in music? You think Steinbeck thought books were kinda cool? You think Megan Fox is …

We had one of those terrible weeks with everybody working until late at night. Tension was all over. So, I gave this idea.
- Why don’t we go to that pool bar next to the agency after work?
The media guy was reluctant. He had a stress with a new writer during a pitch.
- I don’t know…
The writer insisted.
- Come on, it will be cool .
- I have to go home and help my wife with something, I’ll meet you there.
- Hey man, I hope you are not upset with me…
- No, look, I will call you …

After a long time absorbed by many different projects, I had the time to take a look at the ad specialized websites again.
And I found a surprising new big wave of campaigns and actions based on just one thing: the buzz.
Lots of creatives and agencies are justifying these ads saying that people twitted a lot about them. That people added something about them at their facebook profiles or their blogs.
Cool. It is fantastic to we live in an age when the audience can express their opinion about anything on the …

Everybody wants to win awards.
They are the holy grail of our industry. The ticket to the big time. The career accelerator.
They are also a sham.
Ever notice how it is the same people, the same agencies, the same style of work that wins year in and year out?
There’s a perfectly good reason for this.
It’s the same people, doing the same damn work, from the same damn agencies that judge the elite competitions year after year after year.
It’s a bit a of a circle jerk, no?
I’m not saying a lot of the …

The power of a great story is the one thing that has endured all time, and it’s the one thing that we can be sure will always endure. Surely, the last breath, of the last person, will be in struggle to utter, “told you I was sick.”
Like people, brands have a story. When brands get in trouble, it’s almost always because it has been challenged, and in that challenge it has lost its personality, its center, the way it has always defined itself. Remember Goldman Sachs’ tagline, “Our Client’s Interests …

Ever hear about how much vacation time they get in other countries and think, man, what a bunch of losers?
Me neither.
Pretty much every other civilized country takes more time off than we do. And you often hear serious ‘type A’ people snicker at this, as if those people are somehow doing it all wrong.
Well, I imagine the beneficiaries of all that vacation time would find that snickering quite amusing from their beach-front lounge chairs on the Mediterranean.
I imagine they must look at us like quaint little ants, toiling away relentlessly …