“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.”
This was a quote that Dominick Cullinane, the garden designer in my BNI chapter, added to his 60 seconds last Friday. I love it.
It reminds me of a scene in Madagascar 2. Faced with the utter wreckage of their aeroplane on the plains of Africa, Skipper, the leader of the penguins, can only see a benefit: they will be able to improve the aircraft starting from scratch.
Not that I take business advice from fictional penguins as a rule, but you have to admire their outlook on life.
Having had a corporate job canceled at virtually the eleventh hour just over a week ago, I decided that the way forward was to turn the situation to my advantage. Instead of a shoot in London, I would spend the two days gifted to me preparing for a trip to Dublin to visit advertising agencies.
Now, at the close of the first day in the capital, I’m feeling a whole lot better about the canceled job.
The feedback on my portfolio presentation has been good to down-right enthusiastic; and the first steps to forging long-term, mutually-profitable relationships have been made.
Tomorrow, I have four more meetings and I have no doubt that they will be equally positive.
Yet I have to make a confession. I’ve discovered that the great reception I’ve had is the least of the benefits of traveling up here.
As I walked about Dublin, some insights awakened within me. The most important of which is this:
Get to the next stage of your ambitions as quickly as you can, so that you can move on to the stage beyond that.
For me, this is a real flash of the blindingly obvious. A moment of true clarity.
For a while now, I had put visiting the ad agencies in Dublin at the pinnacle of my marketing efforts. It was the ultimate goal beyond which lay nothing. If I could start to get ad agency work, I would have arrived at the last, most ambitious stop on my career trajectory.
Having this final goal has held me back.
For a long while I told myself that I wasn’t ready for such a giant leap. My work wasn’t good enough. I didn’t have the right print portfolio. I lacked the stature required. Anything to stop me from actually picking up the phone and making the appointments.
Turns out that all of this is nonsense.
I and my work are good enough. End. Of. Story.
Not only that, after my second meeting my mind was already projecting forward to the next stage – the stage beyond the ad agencies. Because, of course, there is another. And beyond that another again. And so on.
That’s not to say that I am discounting working with ad agencies. Quite the opposite. With the right creative at the right agency, there will be some wonderfully fulfilling assignments ahead.
But having achieved what I thought was the summit, I have a clearer view. I can see huge possibilities beyond the fruitful work that the agencies will provide. The trick now is to figure out how to get to them.
One thing I won’t be doing, though, is wasting any time in starting the journey.
