Dear Graduates--A short disclaimer on your 2 years with us:
Branch Rickey (below, right) ran the Brooklyn Dodgers major league baseball team in the middle of the 20th century.
He was known for his ability to spot talent and help young ballplayers develop into stars.
He championed Jackie Robinson (above, left), hired him for the Dodgers, and supported his breaking the color barrier that had existed in Major League Baseball.
Rickey was successful, innovative and experienced.
There is no reason to believe he wasn't fully in charge of all his faculties on the day he spoke a single sentence to the young man below.
"Son," said the wise Mr. Rickey to Yogi Berra, who would go on to the Hall of Fame & win more World Series games than any catcher in baseball history, "you'll never be a major league player."
I hope you do not find it tiresome if I remind you one last time it's what you think that matters, not what us ersatz Branch Rickeys think.
Congratulations on finishing your schooling.
Welcome to the start of your education.
He was known for his ability to spot talent and help young ballplayers develop into stars.
He championed Jackie Robinson (above, left), hired him for the Dodgers, and supported his breaking the color barrier that had existed in Major League Baseball.
Rickey was successful, innovative and experienced.
There is no reason to believe he wasn't fully in charge of all his faculties on the day he spoke a single sentence to the young man below.
"Son," said the wise Mr. Rickey to Yogi Berra, who would go on to the Hall of Fame & win more World Series games than any catcher in baseball history, "you'll never be a major league player."I hope you do not find it tiresome if I remind you one last time it's what you think that matters, not what us ersatz Branch Rickeys think.
Congratulations on finishing your schooling.
Welcome to the start of your education.
10 Comments:
at the risk of sounding like a suck up,
I have to say that your classes were worth the price of tuition.
thanks for the occasional verbal beatdown
-p
IF you had mentioned that to me just once during my education, I may not have needed all the therapy. Perhaps saying it multiple times ensures at least everyone hears it; lets it sink in; then has enough time to start to believe it.
It's just that I don't know what to think anymore. Is it: "devour books, magazines, newspapers everything", "watch movies", "go to museums", "travel", "watch tv", "listen to all types of music", "you have to put stuff in your head before stuff can come out", etc... or is it: "you have to work your ass off", "great ideas are found among a huge pile of bad ones", "keep working don't stop", "bust your as",etc...
If I bust my ass and don't stop working, when do I read, travel, and listen to music?
Dear anonymous,
I don't think there's one answer.
If there is, it's not "watch TV".
I'll bet what ends up working for you is what every single person I've seen who's achieved greatness has done: make up the rules as you go along.
Got a question, Mark. If it doesn't matter what we think? Why are people always asking, "what do you think?" Ferg
Dear Mr. Ferguson,
I'm sure anyone who wants to know what you and I think--oh how my knees weaken as I count the ways in which I resemble you--are doing so in order to be able to steer their thoughts in an opposite direction. I am often queried for exactly this reason and have learned not to resent it.
Dear marahaahaa,
It was a pleasure seeing you respond to the challenge being you presents. But don't thank me. It's the student that does the work of changing his or her mind. Now, go write something good and don't let me hear of you acting like an advanced degree holder.
Mark,
During one of my last creative meetings before being exiled from the advertising world I was asked by a client, "what are you thinking about, Ferg?" I said, "pxxxy". I don't think he liked my answer. I did that for a reaction, something you, Mr. Fenske, would do. I told the group that I was tired of sitting in the same old meetings, listening to the same old crap. "When you are ready to start thinking about different ways to sell your product, I will stop thinking about pxxxy." I was asked to leave the room. Thinking back, I don't think they really cared what I was thinking about. Do you? Ferg
Dear Mr. Ferguson,
I believe they were afraid of your thoughts, not your use of inappropriate language. You gave the signal you spoke from your own thinking, not from a menu of acceptable thoughts provided by the client, and so, rather than listen to something not of his own making, the client caved in to his need for comfort by removing the challenge. If that sounds like what happened, then the answer to your question "does anyone want to hear our thoughts?" remains yes--though the location of this tiny number of hopeful listeners remains, as it ever has been, secret--and I am afraid the rules state you must return to the field and continue to inflict your thinking on those you meet, else the game be ended and earth and all we love be destroyed.
I will in no way attempt to top Mr. Ferguson's eloquent post.
However, I will attempt to answer Anonymous #2's ass-busting vs. noggin-feeding question:
It's both. Rather, it should be both. If you work for an agency that wants you there until 11 o'clock or so every night, you're at the wrong agency. But you probably already knew that when you were hired. At most agencies -- even the mediocre 98% of them -- the work ebbs and flows. When it ebbs, take advantage of it. Watch movies on your laptop. Read my blog. Make fun of my blog. Go concepting off site at the golf course. Whatever. Then when the assignment rolls in that requires long hours fueled by Mentos and fantasies of impressing the ladies in media, you'll be ready.
But that's just me.
Go Blue.
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