Work Ethic, Ugh

Work ethic. B-o-o-o-ring. It even sounds puritanical: Work ethic. Work ethic. Work ethic. Girls don't go home with the guy with great work ethic. Talent … now that's glamorous. Talent takes a drag on its cigarette and says nonchalantly, "Oh, that idea? I came up with it in the shower." But here's the thing. The process of creating brilliant ads isn't glamorous. It's sitting down and working. Hard. For a long time. Long after the night crew has stopped vacuuming the hallways. The creatives I respect most, they're doggedly focused workhorses. The amount of time they spend walking up to the award-show podium is about .0003 percent of the time spent throwing ideas in the trash. Here's the difference: Talent can get you a great ad. Work ethic can get you a great career.Right now, being a star creative is about solving problems. Back in the good ol' days, like 2000, the briefs were easy and the assignments plentiful. Talent was king. But today, hard work trumps clever. When I hire, I look for talent, of course, but I also look for fanatical attitude, tenacity, optimism and a geeky curiosity about advertising. That's what it takes to come through consistently. That and a tolerance for cold pizza. Besides, talent is fickle. Some days it shows up, other days it stays home in bed. You don't even get to choose how much talent you're born with. But work ethic is equal-opportunity. Anyone can work hard. Bob Barrie, a notoriously hardworking creative, believes that having your ads killed can be a positive thing. He says, "When you're mentally prepared to suffer rejection, to learn from it and get back on the horse, you can ultimately have smarter and more relevant work because of that learning." Years ago, I worked with Bob and Dean Buckhorn at Fallon when they presented a big new campaign for Time magazine. It died, but they came back with the "red border" campaign. Not exactly a runner-up. Usually, how exceptional you are depends on how uncomfortable you're willing to be. Take weightlifting. Peak muscle development happens when the muscle is near the point of complete exhaustion. If you're comfortable, you're not done. It's only when you start hurting that you start making progress. Same for the creative process. Bill Westbrook, my favorite creative director, taught me a time line. First, you come up with every lame cliché. Second, you feel like a total hack and wonder why you ever got into this business. Finally, after there's a bloody spot on the wall where you've repeatedly hit your head, you can start to do something killer. (Helpful hint: Research proves you can think 10 percent faster after three cups of coffee.) The most discouraging part of being a creative is how little you can control your own work. You can't control which ads are approved, how the focus group responds, what politics rule your department or even how quickly you come up with ideas. There is one thing you can control: how hard you try. At the end of the day, that's all that matters, because that's what's within your power. Incidentally, I've never once come up with an idea in the shower.

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Work Ethic, Ugh

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