Yesterday I read an article titled, What the Fuck Makes You Too Good For Advertising? It was a counterpoint to another article titled, Do Not Go Into Advertising.

I make no secret that I worked in advertising for 20 years. Heck, I still work in it. Just not as much. For the most part—I loved it. Everyday I was surrounded by an eclectic group of people. I went to work looking forward to being entertained and entertaining others. Walk into any ad agency and you’ll hear someone laughing. I shit you not. The last agency I worked at, created a list of languages spoken by its employees, in case you needed something translated. At the time, there were maybe 500 people there. The list had something like, 30 different languages. Either that’s insane diversity or just a whole lot of smart people who spoke multiple languages. Actually, it was both.

Ad people are layers of interesting. They’re like an onion. Every time you peel away a layer, you discover something else about that person. I once worked with this guy who was an account person. They manage the pieces of business that the agency works on. Nice guy. He was funny, always cracking jokes and killer at his job. I find out a few months later that he’s got this secret life. Outside of advertising he writes screenplays that get turned into Steven Segal movies. He doesn’t tell anyone. Writes under a pseudonym. Just bangs one out every now and then and sells them. That’s his fucking hobby. It wasn’t just him, it’s like everyone had other lives. Advertising attracts talented people. Unique people. I’ve aways thought this.

So what’s my point? Well back to the two articles I mentioned above. One stating that if a person has any talent, they should stay the hell away from it. It would be a waste of time. A talented person should go off and do great things while they’re young. If it’s writing, go write. If it’s music, go play music. But don’t waste time toiling away in advertising. The counterpoint article called this horse shit and said advertising was the perfect industry to prepare a person to go off and do great things. I’m in the second camp. While the first way is a viable way, it’s harder. Young people know jack.

If it weren’t for my training in advertising, I don’t think I would have been able to sit down and write a book. I’m sure of it. I learned all five points made in the counter article while working in advertising. Here’s how I think I’ve benefitted.

1) Advertising forces you to get to the point. We don’t have the luxury of 400 pages to make a point or to tell a story. We have :30 seconds or sometimes two seconds. I think advertising has helped me to hone my storytelling abilities. I don’t waste time writing stuff that is insignificant to the story. A lot of authors tell wordy and pointless stories thinking the more they say, the better. Eh, maybe. Most likely not.

2) Advertising gives you variety. I worked with a lot of different companies. I had to learn the in’s and out’s of their business very quickly. Ad people are a jack of all trades. They’re also quick studies. I think that helped me to write on a variety different topics.

3) Advertising teaches you persistence. Ad people have to jump through hoops to sell their ideas to companies. Impossible hoops. Hoops that are on fire or the size of a thumbnail. And every time they make it through a hoop. Another type of hoop is created. I think this helped me to keep writing no matter what, to achieve my goals.  A lot of wannabe writers can’t get started or can’t finish a book.

4) Advertising teaches you that your creativity isn’t so goddamn precious. In the ad business, the second you come up with an idea, you’ve got to start selling it. From your partner, to your boss, to his boss, to other co-workers, to the client, that client’s boss, that client’s boss and even his wife. That’s a lot of people who can kill your idea because they don’t like it, it’s off strategy, they’ve seen it done already, they don’t like it, some other company is already using it, it costs too much, they don’t like and lastly, it could just suck. The best offense to someone not liking your idea, is to come up with another one. You’ll always win. Advertising gave me the thick skin needed. It’s this sort of mentality the helps me as a writer to push my ideas and not get all defensive about them like some little bitch. How many of you go with your first thought? How many of you defend your ideas as if you couldn’t possibly be wrong?

5) You learn to be a creative professional. I learned how to work with others. I learned how to decipher feedback (Sometimes what people are saying really isn’t the problem. It’s something else but they suck at critiquing). I learned how to give feedback. I learned how to help others make their ideas better. I learned how to let others help me make my ideas better. I learned all of this in advertising. It’s quicker route to success when you can do this. Sitting in a closet by yourself not listening or paying any attention to others doesn’t work. Don’t be this type of writer. It’ll be a rough life.

I’d like to add another point that wasn’t included in the article.

6) Anything is possible. At the last agency I worked at, I learned very quickly that the word “No” did not exist there. The mindset was that anything was possible if you tried hard enough. Not just one person trying but everyone trying. I’ve seen people pull together to do the impossible and achieve it, time and time again. When you don’t doubt what you can do, the skies the limit.

I’ve seen a lot of people leave advertising to go on and do great things, things they never thought they could or would do. It’s exciting. They reach a point where they’ve gotten all they can out of it and are looking for new challenges or new ways of exploring their creativity. So don’t be afraid of it. Milk it dry and move on.