I have to admit, it’s a little hard to come home after a day of dealing with client nonsense and try to tackle a book called “Work Like You’re Showing Off! The Joy, Jazz and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today.” Especially when there’s an exclamation point in the title and 2 dudes in suits literally jumping for joy on the cover.
But the book, written by Joe Calloway, a restauranteur and public speaker, did remind me of a number of things that you can easily see in ad agency life: Namely, that the happiest people in advertising (a rare breed) and the people who have a long career in the biz (a rarer breed) generally move through life unconcerned with their past trials and tribulations, concentrate on whatever project is on their desk today, do it the best they can and move on to the next thing, maintaining a good level of positivity and composure as much as possible.
It’s a slim, self-help book for corporate types, and while there’s nothing deeply revelatory in the book, it’s a good counterpoint to all the stories we hear about self-absorbed prima donnas in the ad biz who got to where they are by steamrolling anyone and everyone in their way and throwing a hissy fit over every little problem they face. While many famous CD’s got the big office that way, many others didn’t and still managed to carve a nice career out for themselves, and time for a life, too.
(FULL DISCLOSURE: Special thanks to Anna Suknov of FSB Associates who sent me a copy of the book for review.)
