I was having lunch with Jeremy Sinclair, and we were talking about football.
Jeremy isn’t interested in football himself.
But one of his partners, David Kershaw, is an avid Arsenal fan.
He gets elated when they win, and depressed when they lose.
This fascinated Jeremy, because it made no sense.
Why would anyone care about a bunch of highly paid strangers kicking a ball around?
If they win, you’re actually no better off yourself.
And if they lose, you personally haven’t lost anything.
So why would you care?
It was difficult for me to explain because I don’t actually go to football matches.
I love football, but I’d much rather watch it at home.
The camera is always exactly where the ball is.
There are replays of goals, in slow motion, from different angles.
It’s a short walk to the fridge for another beer.
I much prefer to watch football on TV.
Either at the pub, or with mates, or even at home alone.
Unless it’s a live England or West Ham match.
Then I don’t like to watch because I care too much who wins.
I get upset and stressed, and I can’t enjoy the game.
Afterwards Jeremy said that was the most interesting thing he heard during lunch.
“You can’t enjoy the game if you care too much about the result.”
Jeremy has studied philosophy a lot.
He’d just put his finger on a basic truth about life, advertising, everything.
You can’t enjoy it if you care too much about the result.
That’s the Buddhist doctrine of non-attachment.
If you are attached to things turning out a certain way, you can’t enjoy the ride.
All that matters to you is the result, not the journey.
And yet in life, the journey is all there is.
We already know the result.
We die.
And we don’t want it to happen too soon.
So, now we know the result we can give up worrying and enjoy the ride.
“Be here now,” as Buddha would say.
But we don’t do that.
We worry and fret over every little thing.
Did we lose the pitch?
Did Campaign say something bad about us?
Did someone else get credit for our work?
Did someone else get a raise?
Did we get left out of a meeting?
Jerry Della Femina wrote a great book about advertising in New York in the 1960s.
He was a brilliant copywriter who was loving every minute of his life working in advertising.
He was from Brooklyn and most of his friends worked in factories, or shops, or drove cabs for a living.
So to Jerry, advertising was a giant, glamorous toyshop.
40 years ago he described it as, “The most fun you can have with your clothes on.”
One day he met an account man who always seemed to be worried.
This guy was always sweating and nervous.
He was losing his hair, he drank, he smoked, he chewed his nails.
Jerry asked him how come he was always so uptight.
The account man said he’d heard one of his clients just had lunch with another agency.
He also heard another of his clients say they liked the work a different agency was doing.
And another of his clients was seen talking to an account man from another agency.
Jerry said to him, “How can you be so worried, you were a fighter pilot in WW2? You shot down German planes that were trying to kill you. If you weren’t frightened of the Nazis what are you worried about now?”
The guy shouted, “Nazis don’t steal accounts.”
Huh?
I think that guy lost his sense of perspective.
Whatever happens in advertising can’t be as scary as people trying to kill you 4 miles above Germany.
I’m sure he thought “If I live through this, I’ll treasure every second of my life.”
But then, over time, he forgot it.
And his job in advertising became life-and-death again.
Here’s what I think.
Everyone who went to university wants to work in advertising.
Everyone in advertising wants to work in the creative department.
We’re already in a great place.
Sometimes we forget to enjoy it.
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Lovely post for a Monday morning Dave. Coincidence? I think no.
Missed a ‘t’. Oops.
Another great Monday morning lift. Only one grievance…not sure everyone in advertising wants to work in the creative department???
I hate football.
Hi Dave,
Yes, Mr Kershaw is an avid gooner. I understand him. It’s the elation you get just being there. Win or lose, at the end of the day it’s just a sphere being kicked around a square of grass. That’ s what I love about football so much. It’s completely pointless, sometimes totally frustrating, and the public are simply merciless. It’s The Colosseum of the 21st Century.
I like to go to the match because there’s a lot more play off-camera, and off the ball that can influence the game. One year down a Charlton golaie got a little upset by the way a striker tackled him. He walked up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and to everyone’s shock, knocked him out with a single punch. It wasn’t televised, the referee didn’t send him off, it was pure drama.
On another occasion, I remember a fellow Creative Director in Saudi Arabia wanted to go and punch the MD in the face because he was so awful to everyone. (they get a bit emotional over there) I managed to stop him. I told him there were far more important things to get concerned about than this tin-pot general, and told him if he really wanted to upset him, do some outstanding work that would make him unsackable.
With footie, it’s also a fan thing. Last week someone I knew from the away supporters gave me a ticket, another paid for my train fare, they wouldn’t let me pay a damn thing. They killed me with their kindness, like an extended family. I’ve had so much love given to me by fellow Charlton fans it’s a real pleasure to see them. We share a closeness that goes beyond winning or losing, and that is a great value to have in any creative department.
I remember Cloughies Forest coming to town one winters day and blowing us apart 0-4!
I’m sure Arsenal ‘fans’ admired the football the last time they were torn apart at home. Perspective? I find having some friends who follow other clubs helps to avoid becoming a one eyed tribalist, which is not a good trait for anyone in the biz of communications.
I know what you mean about preferring to watch a match on TV. Going to a game is more about the “going” - beers in the pub, the walk up to the ground, queuing to get through turnstiles, kebab on way home. The match itself is secondary for me - I usually watch most of it on the big screen anyway. Much better view at the Emirates - though I did see some great throw-ins at Highbury.
Hi John,
I don’t think it’s about one eye tribalism so much as just lightening-up. At Charlton, you can’t take life seriously. It’s not possible to be a Charlton fan and be serious. We’ve had a double Annus Horribilus over two successive seasons (sounds like an awful illness) but the fans just keep coming back. For me it’s all about FAITH. Finding Answers In The Heart, and even if there is no answer in the heart, we just keep coming back anyway. That’s the way the Russians won at Stalingrad, and it’s the way we do things at the Valley. Too many fans these days are “Fair weather fans.” For me, the marque of a true creative is the one who will dig into his pockets and deliver gold when he is peniless.
Kevin
Are you confusing brand loyalty with being inflicted? Football is the greatest trivial pursuit in history. I do love though how a bunch of ‘intellectuals’ just don’t seem to ‘get it’.
I am a happy Hammer so used to the ups and down of football but to be fair I barely follow football these days for various reasons. I saw The Irons tried to throw it away at the weekend, given 10-15 minutes more I am sure we’d have pulled it off.
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Not being able to watch a game reminds me of Billy Beane the General Manager at the Oaklands (Baseball team) in 2002 - he could not watch his own team for fear of getting emotionally involved and making a move based on emotions, so he’s stay in his office and listen on the radio and if need be smash it up. It is all documented in a great book called Money Ball.
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Beane changed the way the Oaklands drafted new players by looking differently at the stats of players who could be drafted. He realised players were being over-looked based on the wrong evidence. So he snapped up players other teams did not want (cheaply) based on his in depth undertanding of statistically evaluations. He had little budget to compete with the big teams.
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The book is amazing and don’t worry if you don’t get baseball - it will be made into a film in 2011 with Brad Pitt so read it before it’s ruined.
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Rumour had it that he was looking at helping Premiership Clubs a few years back inc Fergir, O’Neil and Wegner.
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I hate it when people you don’t know recommend books…..such a hypocrite.
Hi Jim,
I read Money ball and, as you say, Billy Beane is a very smart guy.
That season he did better than the NY Giants, on a fraction of the money, just by finding a smarter way of buying players.
I’ve read everything Michael Lewis has written by the way, starting with Liar’s Poker.
I always learn a lot.
Wish they had Billy Beane at Upton Park.
http://ex-blank-page.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-98.html
one big lesson I learned from sports:
you play with what you got.
and next time you play with what you got again.
I wish they had lots of things at Upton Park Dave. A trophy for starters, we have Arsenal in the next round of the cup, maybe next year then.
Dave and all - What did you think agencies over rate or weight wrongly when selecting staff, past experience, qualifications, little black book, punctuality, age…..
When I had my first child (2 and a bit years ago), everyone said to me, ‘treasure every second - they grow up so fast.’ So I did. I made sure that when my boy did something, be it funny, sad, cute, disgusting, I’d savour it. I’d sort of log it in my memory. So now when people say, ‘it seems like only yesterday that he was a tiny baby, I can confidently say, to me, it doesn’t - it feels like about 2 years ago. If you spend all your time dwelling on the past, how can you focus on the future? Is this even relevant? I think there’s a link to your post somewhere in there……
As Ronan, he of Westlife, chirruped, “Life is a rollercoaster, you just gotta ride it.”
C’mon Dave
No Billy Beane but at least you had Billy Bonds.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/kevin-beattie-and-billy-bonds-30-grand-a-week-and-they-cant-kick-the-ball-properly-443544.html
Glengarry Glenross, Wall Street and The Boiler Room are good movies about selling. Death of a Salesman is probably the ultimate story though.
Dave, ironical for a Chinese to ask this of an Englishman.
Re: the Buddhist non-attachment. How about the Shaolin monks and nuns who spend all their lives meditating and studying Buddhist sutras? Thank you.
Hi Bei Ye,
This is what I think.
My wife is Chinese and she grew up thinking she was a Buddhist.
Actually her religion is Taoist, which most Chinese religion is, it’s philosophically similar to Buddhism but different in practice.
In both cases you have to separate the religion from the philosophy.
Buddha and Lao Tzu were both philosophers who were turned into religious figures by later generations.
As Buddha preached non-attachment “All desire is suffering” so too did Lao Tzu in the ‘Tao Te Ching’.
In all religions, including Christianity, practitioners get attached to their religion.
This is different to what the original philosophers, including Jesus Christ, taught.
So we must separate the unthinking religious observance from the original philosophy.
This is only my opinion Be Yei.
You must read about Buddha, Lao Tzu and Jesus for yourself and decide if you think the religions founded in their names have any bearing on what they taught.
“In all religions, including Christianity, practitioners get attached to their religion.” More or less, Dave.
Both Indian and East Asian or Taoic religions only offer guidance and encourage a personalised perspective on things, while Abrahamic religions teach allegiance to pre-established principles. So in Buddhism, meditation is discovering your own set of principles, which means the more you meditate, the more freedom it brings. In Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam), deeper understanding of religious principles means deeper indoctrination. It seems Eastern religions haven’t completely abandoned the original philosophy, while Western religions have become manipulative authorities and only use the philosophy they descended from as a fake interface.
I was watching an old black and white film called Freedom Radio today, where the cast of Nazi’s all speak in Oxford English. It set me thinking. Did Germans think like Britains in 1938? Western culture has projcted an archetypical model the German people during this period which has been typecast across the whole world from Hollywood-out. In this old film Freedom Radio, there’s a really funny bit where the charlady says the lady of the house “Alright ducky I’ll be with you in a minute” The mixture of London dialect with Oxford English in the context of a film all about German resistance to Fascism in Germany makes compelling watching. Regarding religion, here’s something different…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAh-a2R9Kc4
The trouble is, if you look like you’re enjoying it people think you’re not working.
Also clients have a belief that if something’s not complicated and painful then it can’t be right.
Tossers I call ‘em.
Just think, Dave
If WHU had lost that day you may have ended up a fan of all things Doncaster!
The trouble is, if you are ambitious, the closer you get the more you want it. Should we feign indifference? Not think about it. Just stick it in the net.
@Kevin
on “Did Germans think like Britains in 1938?”
I once read that Britains captured the van with all the propaganda material written to be used once Nazis conquered Britain: newspaper articles, radio shows, “news”, commercial info etc.
I believe it was in 1942/43.
it would probably answer your question.
Ok so either nobody fell into my trap purposely or they weren’t paying attention. I said earlier that Ronan, he of Westlife, chirruped, “Life is a rollercoaster, you just gotta ride it.” When in fact Ronan was in Boyzone. I fess up I have the album!
Thanks Dave. Yes, many people think Buddhism = Taoism. Taoism is more mystical and the belief is that if you achieve perfect balance, then you won’t age. So in those Chinese gung fun shows, you see masters with white hair (and eyebrows - that always makes me laugh).
I take your point on religion and philosophy - COnfucius was into philo but became ‘deified’ later. And in Malaysia, the Buddhista and Taoists observe rituals mainland Chinese don’t. Geomancy (feng shui) isn’t part of Taoism or Buddhism but quite a few temples weave that into their beliefs.
Years ago, I broke my hand when I punched the wall in anger talking to a daft CD. The silly idiot had agreed to a change in timing from 2 weeks to 3 days to do a full campaign, including new packaging design. He WASN’T doing the work, so of course it was Ok.
Anyway, the Agency claimed it was a self-inflicted injury and wanted to dismiss me.
So I went to see an old classmate who was a lawyer.
He COULDN’T understand why I had been so worked-up. To him, a job’s just a job. So I told him. “Thanks very much, Pete, but I dodn’t want a lawyer with no passion. If all I am to you is just a case file and a source of revenue, you can go get stuffed”.
Ok, so maybe I got carried away but then again, if you really believe in what you’re doing, you have to fight for it.
Of course, history judges us by results.
So because I was threatened with dismissal (it never happened) I became the loser.
But if I had done something great, folks would say, “that’s the way to go”.
Hi Riki,
That’s amazing. I’m going to follow that up. Very many thanks.
Hi Pary,
I understand your frustrations. I’ve been there too, as I’m sure many others have. I’ve also been in the unpleasant position of having to get people to work when I know they are exhausted. However, I’d never make anyone else do something I’m not prepared to do myself. I also found that when clients pushed for ridiculous deadlines, if you committed the client to attend all parts of the process, they would suddenly find an extra week up their sleeve from nowhere. That usually sorts out the men from the boys, and the clients’ appearance also helps in special circumstances to let the agency staff know they are not being taken for fools, but are respected for their valuable contribution, and that’s very very important. I’d always drag an account director back to the office if he’s delivered a false deadline:-with the client if needs be. Clients and account people soon become exhausted, and then begin to realise they should give their agency respect. Commitment comes all ways. Dumping on people is simply irresponsible and unprofessional. Having said all that, if a piece of business was hanging in the balance over a crazy deadline, I’d pull all the stops out because no business is worth losing unless it’s worth nothing.
I’m a Developer, so Advertising has nothing to do with my every-day life, but I like this post a lot. Thanks for writing it.
@Kevin Gordon
When the NY WTC collapsed, I was doing a huge pitch. It was past midnight (GMT +8 in Asia). An idiotic writer kept giving live updates and one Art Director reckoned it was pointless doing any more work. “The world is ending” he claimed. That made everyone question the sanity of staying past midnight to do a pitch. I remember telling him, “look, if you think the world’s going to end, then you leave now and do whatever you want. But if the world doesn’t end, then you’re going to be out of a job, Ok?’
He stayed. We lost in the final round.
Why? Even as we waited for the pitch results, the Agency management started retrenching staff. The other agency - the incumbent - just made sure the client got to hear of this. Which client is going to give their business to a sinking ship?
Still, it was a defining mo for the Agency. Despite being under-dogs and without a CD, we made the final round.
Dave. You hit the nail on the head. But has anyone any ideas on how to stop yourself caring too much? Sounds like a few of us could use it. How else can you explain the usually sentient john w buying a Boyzone album unless suffering from terrible stress?
Hi Rachel,
I think caring is good, caring a lot is even better.
But we all have to make our own call on when we’re caring too much.
My guess would be when you’re caring so much you stop enjoying it.
My old partner Mike Gold, had an equation I always found really useful.
He said, “You always have to ask yourself: is what I get worth what it costs?”
Hi Dave,
Great post as always. You always enlighten my al-desko lunches and remind me of all the things I already knew, but forgot to apply to my life.
From now on detachment is the name of the game.
Hi Rachel
As Ibsen wrote, “There are those who go down to the sewers to bathe. I go there to purify.”
Dave
Can you clear up ‘A no is better than a maybe’ and ‘Po’. Are we looking for po then no… or yes hopefully?
John.
A ‘no’ is better than a ‘maybe’ only applies to decisions.
The response you get from someone else.
A ‘no’ at least means you can drop it.
A ‘maybe’ means you don’t know, so you can’t move on.
‘Po’ is about thinking, not about decisions.
‘Po’ forces you to expand an idea.
‘No’ forces you to drop it.
‘Yes’ makes you do it.
But neither of them ae about developing an idea as ‘Po’ is.
I can see the confusion though.
i was an unhappy account guy until 10 years ago, when i gave it up and tried to become an art director, which is what i really wanted to do.
so i worked nights and weekends for a year putting together a book.
i got a new job as a junior art director at ogilvy.
i took a huge pay cut, i work longer hours, evenings, weekends, in fact i more or less never stop.
but one thing changed. i love it and i couldn’t be happier.
and having done a job that i didn’t love, i say to any creative i hear complaining: what are you complaining about? you’ve go one of the best jobs in the world.
i just got made creative director.
Michael,
That’s a fantastic story.
Really great.
You should put that comment on the latest blog, too.
So that more people read it and get inspired by it.
Well done.