I sometimes get asked to speak to students or mentor young creatives.
So I started writing down the things that actually helped me.
Here are 10 lessons advertising has taught me so far.
I’ll keep adding as I go.
1. Resilience is everything.
Great ideas die all the time, often for all the wrong reasons.
It’s part of the job.
Allow yourself to be annoyed for a few minutes, but then get back up and try again.
The game is to return with something stronger.
The people who last are the ones who keep swinging.
2. A deck is a love letter to your idea.
Don’t just describe your idea and assume people “will get it.”
A deck is your chance to build a case for the idea, the way a lawyer builds a case in court.
It doesn’t just show an idea. It shapes it.
While you write it, the idea gets clearer, sharper, more inevitable.
This is where you develop the story, the insight, the tension, the proof.
A deck is your defense against every stakeholder who will try to reshape or challenge the idea.
If the deck is tight, the idea becomes bulletproof.
If the deck is weak, the idea will fall apart.
A deck is how you honor your idea.
3. Come up with something your CD will remember on the way home.
Creative directors see hundreds of ideas every week. Sometimes every day.
Your job is to come up with the one that stays in their head after they close their laptop.
The idea they can’t shake.
The idea that will follow them home.
The bar isn’t “good.” The bar is “wtf was that.”
Come up with something unforgettable to the person who has seen it all.
4. Enjoy the problems.
When you start making an idea real, the problems will come.
And usually, the better the idea, the bigger the problems.
Timelines, budgets, logistics, approvals.
If you don’t learn to enjoy solving them, you’ll suffer.
The problems are not a sign the idea is failing.
They’re a sign the idea is alive.
So treat each one as part of the job.
Solve it. Improve it. Keep going.
That’s where the real work happens.
5. Craft is everything.
Imagine two comedians telling the same joke, word for word.
One makes the room explode.
The other gets nothing.
The difference isn’t the idea. It’s how the idea is delivered.
That’s what craft is.
Craft is knowing what the idea needs to shine.
It’s choosing the one detail that matters and cutting the five that don’t.
It’s rewriting something twelve times because the thirteenth is finally the one.
It’s tone, pacing, taste, pressure, patience.
A good idea can fall flat without craft.
A simple idea can come alive with it.
Craft is what makes the work land.
6. Build range.
Build range.
Don’t become the person who can only do one type of idea.
Learn to do techy brand activations.
Learn to do
weird outdoor stunts.
Learn to write a 6-second pre-roll.
Learn to come up with print ads.
Learn to build a brand platform that lives for years instead of weeks.
Learn comedy. Learn emotional. Learn simple.
If you only know one trick, people will only call you for that one trick.
7. Welcome feedback.
I get it. Sharing ideas is vulnerable.
You put something personal out there and people will have opinions.
And they usually have no idea how hard you worked to get to that idea in the first place.
Yes, it will hurt.
But most of the time, people are trying to help you make it better.
Let the idea breathe, let it be challenged.
That’s how it grows.
And if someone is clearly just saying something dumb, just nod, say “good point,” and keep going.
Not every note deserves to be addressed.
8. Be generous
If you come up with a lot of great ideas, a lot of people will want to help you make them better.
Let them in. Enjoy their talents. Share credit.
The work gets stronger when more good minds touch it.
Don’t worry about credit-hitchhikers.
They always reveal themselves in the long run.
You don’t have to say anything.
People know.
9. There is no bad briefing.
Every briefing is a chance. If the ask is big and exciting, great.
If it feels small or boring, that’s your moment to push, to stretch, to learn how to make something from nothing.
If you can make great work from a weak briefing, you’re dangerous.
And if the idea still doesn’t get there, you’ve strengthened your craft.
There is always something to gain.
10. Don’t chase awards.
If you chase trophies, you’ll only feel fullfilled in May and June.
The only thing that matters is making the right idea for the brand at that moment.
When the idea is great, the awards follow.
People remember and respect the work, not an award shelf.