What's a shitberg?
The answer should always be - not you.
I teach ad class from time to time and one of the things I try to impress on my students is the importance of effort and authenticity. Of course, you can't teach a lesson to smart, creative and indifferent neer-do-wells if you use words like "effort" and "authenticity"
...and "neer-do-wells."
So I try to keep it real and tell them what they need to know. And it starts with the shitbergs...
So you know about icebergs, right? How there's a tip of ice visible above the water, but so much more ice underneath? Now picture a person you meet and then realize they are full of shit. Then after a span of time, you get to know them better, and you realize they are even more full of shit than you originally thought.
That's a shitberg. And unfortunately, advertising is full of them. Do you know why?
Shhh.... secret. It's because If you don't try your best while pushing and helping the people around you to solve the problem in an authentic and creatively engaging way that actually connects with real people... well... then advertising is actually an easy gig to never really have to work in. But that compromise comes at a price.
The shit collects on laziness and eventually turns it into fear. The fear oozes and spreads. Then one day, you can't wash the smell of shit off you. "and there's nothing worst than too late." - Bukowski
But don't be afraid, don't ever be afraid. Because there are a few things you can do to avoid it:
1) Work your ass off and make things. Make a lot of different things. Make money to make things. Make reasons to make things. Because most shitbergs never will. So within a couple of years of pushing it, you should pass most of them in value and experience.
2) Be honest. But don't be a judgemental prick. If we're idea people, then stop loving your dead babies. You should be a factory with a thousand more ideas waiting behind that dead one. But don't be a jerk when you're killing somebody else's baby either. (You know why.) Luckily, shitbergs usually only have one idea and they most likely five-finger-discounted it from someone else.
3) Remember you're in the class of 3010. Never stop learning. Shitbergs stopped learning the moment they realized how to succeed without it.
