It has been a long time since my last elevator ride at 201 Post Street. As I entered the lobby, waves of memories from my days at Venables Bell & Partners came rushing forward. The elegant and slightly austere entrance bathed in sunlight from the nearly floor to ceiling windows. The crisp whiteness of the furniture. The pile of awards on the staircase shelf. It was a bit like stepping into a time warp, as if for a moment the last five and a half years at my current ad job had never happened.
As my friend Robert and I set out for the evening, we vented about our respective days. Crazy creatives and crazier clients. Surreal shoots. Blown budgets. Stretched thin with no reinforcements in sight. Standard Thursday night advertising business speak. At least to those who have been in the business for long enough to earn their stripes and know that it doesn't matter whose name is on the door...the underlying theme of the circus is always the same.
When taken from a non-Mad Man perspective, it is a strange business. It is perfect for those who thrive inside a pressure cooker that is trapezoid-shaped instead of oval. There is no such thing as normal. Not many people can say they have spent two days on set with a live tiger or a thirty-foot tall talking tree or Beyonce (last one is not my story unfortunately). And even fewer can fully appreciate the blood-sweat-tears that went into wrangling a wild animal/foam puppet/global superstar into selling a product to a very bored consumer. It is definitely not a 9-5er in a cube farm poring over monotoneus documents.
There is a certain pride in working in such a bizarre and outrageous world. And god knows it can be so much fun. Most ad people--current or former--have hazy but happy recollections of lavish holiday parties, late-night delirum-driven laughing fits and corporate-funded boondoggles. For all of its intensity, the industry has a glamorous sheen. It doesn't hurt that it might be the only other industry besides finance where the three martini (or small batch bourbon as is trendy now) lunch is still regular practice.
Looking forward to the future, it is going to be hard to find a role that challenges me--for better or worse--than an advertising agency gig. One of the questions I seek to answer from this trip is whether I should continue down this path or whether its time for a new one. I've wrestled with this question for a few years, and its time to give it some real consideration. And to be open to new possibilities that may or may not be anything like where I've been for the past eight years.
It is an invigorating prospect and also a slightly scary one....the idea of walking away from an industry that has (at least by its standards) been good to me. What sort of career will stimulate my mind...push my innate curiosity buttons? Give me a good problem to chew on and ultimately solve? To be sure, this path exists...it is just cloulded at the moment.
The good news is that much like the cloudiest, foggiest day, it will pass and the new road--at least the signs for the new road--will pop out in the bright sunlight.
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