Ask a group what it takes to succeed in advertising and you'll get dozens of different answers. Here's my take on the keys to success...based on many years of working with successful ad people in growing agencies around the country.
Read - If you don't continually feast on new ideas, you'll produce only flat and predictable solutions. Suggestions: The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Forbes; anything by Peter Drucker or Jim Collins, and books by guys who've been there: Gates, Grove, Kelleher, Welch, Jobs. Check out Tom Messner's (Euro RSCG) breezy take on current marketing books in the Dec. 12 Adweek. Every top ad guy I know reads voraciously.
Write - It's a must for senior positions, and like tennis or golf, you can always learn to do it better. Get a coach, a teacher, a friend to critique your work - memos, plans, letters - and push yourself to improve. Don't know how many times I've heard, "She'd be great for that job but can't write a memo or plan to save her life. Let's get someone else." Clear compelling writing is imperative for success.
Present - Can you command a room? Just like writing, if you don't present well you won't make it to CD, AMD or Group Account Director. Slay the butterflies by plunging into Toastmasters or a local improv troupe to build your confidence and technique.
Think - Strategically, that is. Everyone believes they can do "strategic planning" but few even know what it is (easier defined than done, it's a management tool for focusing individual and group effort for an orchestrated outcome). Google "strategic planning" and you'll drown in definitions and templates. Learn to think strategically and your career will escalate.
Ask - Be curious, learn, and you'll grow. Be inquisitive about everything and you'll never be bored.
Proactivate - Ours is a talent business - you need to stand out. It takes extra work and often longer hours to separate yourself from the pack, so get used to it. Showing up just 9 to 5 and thinking "they owe me a better job" is for also-rans.
Create - Progress is the product of innovation and innovation doesn't happen unless you try new things - that's creativity. An agency should be a Petri dish of creative experimentation in all areas. Besides, business is nothing but a series of experiments anyway, so be the person who comes up with new ideas and you'll achieve more success than the people who wait for things to happen TO them.
Save - When making decisions about your career, having money gives you freedom. Don't kid yourself thinking that you'll start saving or investing when you make bigger bucks. That's stupid. It's not how much you make but how diligent you are putting some of it where it will grow. And though you may be decades from even thinking about retirement, this is exactly the time to max 401k contributions and get smart about stocks. There are few pensions in advertising.
Relax - A few shooters after work or a quick toke may momentarily loosen those knots in your gut but over time they'll quicksand you. Find someone who carries a lot of responsibility with ease and ask them how they deal with the pressure. Stress is a killer, but believe me there are keys you can discover to prevent your nerves from eating you alive.
The Main Thing -The real key to success is getting the important things done, not just minutiae. Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant, Stephen Covey says, and doing more things faster won't replace doing the right things. So figure out what will have the most impact for improving your work, your life, and your happiness and concentrate on that. You get what you focus on.
OK, enough proselytizing. Try some of the above and see if it helps provide more meaning and challenge - and success - in your career this new year.
