August 25, 2004
seek out the exceptional minds
More thoughts on “How To Be A Copywriter”:
4. Seek out the exceptional minds, avoid everyone else.Life is short. You don’t want to end up in The Watercooler Gang.
OK, I
Hugh MacLeod
I'm a cartoonist.
I sell limited-edition prints.
I wrote a book.
I'm CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.
I also draw private commissions.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
Bluetrain |
$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
$650 | |
Portfolio #2 |
$300 | |
NY NY |
$275 |
Ah — takes one to know one. Could be very few people, you would end up having conversations with. Eliteist nonsense — every body has a history to tell, if you’ll lend an ear. So train your ear as an alternative to narrowing yuor vision is my advice.
All the best
Arne
It’s exceptional for you, mediocre for someone else.
It’s mediocre for you, exceptional for someone else.
I have a feeling that most of these stories are about you. Especially the bartender one.
P”, I would say I was venting my two cents based on personal experience, and not because I found my two cents carved on stone tablets on top of a mountain, hanging out with a burning bush etc.
Of course, my schtick wasn’t bartending. But like I said, it’s an allegory.
Should I have picked another profession? Would you have preferred that? Copywriter, perhaps?
Also:
“It’s exceptional for you, mediocre for someone else.
It’s mediocre for you, exceptional for someone else.”
Ummm… Yes, true… but irrelevant.
Wanting to work with exceptional people — that are exceptional in the way you are (or are inspired by) — is exactly the way to be exceptional yourself, (create exceptional teams or art or products or breakthroughs or …).
Should we suspend all judgement, becoming pure relativists? No.
Should we assume our judgement is anything more than personal? No.
Should we discover what we are exceptional at, encourage other people to find what they are exceptional at, and encourage everyone to find others they can be exceptional with? Yes.
Should we sacrifice our own exceptional experiences to include those who we find mediocre, only to be mediocre ourselves? Hell no.
Every time my boss asks me what one thing our team could do to improve our products and ability to deliver, I tell him, “Half the people, twice as good.” Exceptional delivers. We have control over creating the exceptional.
Jim Jarrett, I totally agree =)
I like what Jim says about encouring others to find what they are exceptional at. I think that is the key. Not they only some people can be exceptional, but that everyone has the potential, but they are not all living up to that potential.
So the key is to avoid the folks who have settled for mediocrity and work with those that are trying to meet their potential.
I think the folks to be around are those whose talent is combined with bravery, a willingness to take risks, and a willingness to discover and then be themselves. I have seen exceptional talent (cleverness, concentration, verbal or quantitative ability) and without this passion and authenticity it doesn’t interest me. Your site and writings have helped me recognize this. I think this is what you mean by exceptional minds — a combination of intelligence, talent, passion, and bravery. A willingness to direct one’s own talents, rather than use them in the service of the conventional. This definitely interests me. I think it is the reason people who are happiest are happiest, and people who are bitterest are bitterest. Talent without risk-taking and passion looks almost sadder to me than mediocrity.
Absolutely. My “exceptional” may not be yours, but the principle holds. And if you’re exceptional, and I don’t recognize it, you will find that useful information about me.
Is the most electric and generative model a collectivist slog where *Everyone has a Contribution to Make*? Or is it a sunrise meadow dance neatly sidestepping the mushrooms and rocks and ordure and the self-congratulatory mutterings of the Received Obvious.
Hugh’s sallies here help me determine a more conscious answer to that. Fuck the poor and mediocre. They can’t afford me. And don’t want to. My cooking gives them indigestion.
Doesn’t mean I don’t tithe a part of my very fine income and efforts to serve others as asked. Just don’t expect me to wear the Biblical bushel as a coolie hat. It Will Catch On Fire.
A. the Hunny
Well, I’ve been keeping an eye on your blog here for a spell. Seeing as how many things you speak about I hold the same views on. Sooo, i suppose I may be of a like mind.. not so sure if I would categorize myself as exceptional– not sure I would categorize myself in anyway— but I do know that I tend to surround myself with people who have vision.
You are irrelevant. Get off your horse and drink your milk.
I am/want to be a teacher. I’m going to be the one making exceptional minds, or at least directing minds towards the fields where they’ll be exceptional.
It’s good to fell this confident sometimes.
Except for the fact that people get really pissy at me when I tell them that they don’t have the qualities I need in them to make things work and thus they’re wasting my time, I think this is right on.
I’ve been spending the last couple of years figuring out better ways to honestly reject people. Less because I want to become an expert in rejection and more because I realize this whole thing is subjective and about what I need and I don’t want to crush peoples’ dreams – I just want them to stop wasting my time.
On the flip side, some people do come through with interesting ideas by accident so I try not to burn too many bridges. On the flip flip side, some people really need a big kick before they figure out they need to go find something else to do.
I fear mediocrity worse than death!
I find a lot of what you say interesting. But sometimes the way you say it (“fuck the poor, they can’t afford me”) leads me to assume you’re naturally unpleasant and/or on coke. I’m not knocking excellence, nor the idea that seeking out exceptional minds is a Good Thing. Just that to do so at the cost of being civil is a price not worth paying. I’d rather tolerate fools some of the time, be a bit more relaxed about life and be more fun to be around.
You’re confusing “cartoons” with “cartoonist”, RIch
Your “creativity”, which I thought a good theme at first, now seems curtailed to creativity in advertising. Your idea of good writing is writing good ads. As time has gone on, it has struck me that you yourself have a fear of mediocrity and do all you can to tell yourself that you have not ended up as mediocre. This I understand, it is a common fear amongst those who regard themselves as “creatives” but spend most of their time writing ads for medocrities.
Shazam, actually, I would say you might be projecting your own fears on me, but what the hell.
I do find your lack of valid e-mail or web address rather telling in that regard…
Hugh — I just wanted to write to say that I really appreciate what you write.
Thank you.
–Max
Hugh,
You’re words resonate with me. I am a true fan of exceptional minds, exceptional people, and exceptional experiences. I detest waste– wasting my time on mediocrity, wasting potential on dead ends, wasting away while life happends to me.
But not all exceptional minds are found in exceptional people and not all of my exceptional experiences have been with the brilliant among us.
Like you, I feel more connected to the exceptional rather than the average (with a tip-of-the-hat Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick!). But experiencing it requires cultivation in some, patience to see in some others, and humility in ourselves.
My plan: connecting with the exceptional is mostly about me, not about others. I get to decide what “exceptions” I’m looking for. I will try to find it where it is, to build it where I can, and not be afraid to walk away if it isn’t there.
What’s your plan Hugh?
My plan? Keep on doing what I’m doing.
i.e. Start conversations with like-minded folk, turn them into markets. Heh.
I generally like what Hugh has to say. But I am not sure if he’s got the pedigree to say what he’s saying in this post.
He didn’t make it in New York, for whatever reason. So he left, which is fine. He’s now working in a small town somewhere in England. That, I am sorry to say, doesn’t sound amazing to me. It sounds a little bit sad. Watercooler sad.
Jamie
Few thoughs on your comments and your post:
Settle is such a nasty word.
You create your own exceptional mind. Those without the desire to do the same, are not worth your time.
Most exceptional people I’ve met don’t describe themselves as being exceptional. They just do their thing.
It is a model I am trying to emulate. Not always successfully, so far.
Good writing, Hugh.
The one thing this conversation hasn’t really addressed is why it’s best to work with exceptional minds. I would argue that it’s only when you work with exceptional people that you reach, even exceed, your level of talent.
You can be good in a void and please yourself with the quality of your work but I’m not convinced you can reach what you’re capable of that way. And God knows you can make a pretty good living being “good enough,” which is all you need for a paycheck. In fact, you’re probably better off just being good enough if a paying gig is all you’re interested in.
Namby pampy though it may sound, if you want a sense of satisfaction from what you do, you want exceptional people around to motivate you, feed you, push you and inspire you.
One of the other reasons writers should want to work with exceptional people is because it’s one thing to write a piece it’s another thing to execute. For example, you can write great copy for a TV ad, or a movie, but without a great director you’re hooped. And great performers and so on.
“Great script. Too bad the ad sucked.”
There’s a nice romantic notion of the isolated writer. This is largely crap. In the real world, everyone depends on other people, even writers. To the degree it is possible, I want those people to be exceptional.
Psst… Go ahead and avoid us, but don’t ANNOUNCE it. Have some tact.
Hugh, I totally agree.
Who’s the bigger fool? The fool, or the person working for the fool?
We all become products of our environment. Best to choose the enviroment. =)
Hugh, I’d like to respond but I’m not sure I’m exceptional enough to join the conversation. All these other brilliant minds who already responded are intimidating. I guess we can only tell if we made the cut by seeing if you write a comment to our comment. The others must just be a bunch of poorly used and currently discarded furniture. You know, I’ve found some amazing things people have placed along the streets in piles of rubbish…
It is the exceptionals which grow the pool of knowledge, by crawling over the edges and claiming new territory. This is exciting, interesting and creative.
However, two things are important to remember.
One is that about 80% of those people are forgotten because the approaches they explored failed or did not stand the test of time. This is the risk.
The other is that you are building on top of the common pool, which has provided you with a kick start — nowadays people learn in school about Pythagoras, the solar system, the human body, chemistry etc, all of which have been ‘exceptional’ or even cabal secrets once, but have flown back to the common pool for others and more people to build on than ever.
The lesson?
Don’t diss elitism; it’s needed to grow.
Don’t diss the average, for you are standing on its rising tide, and it’ll be drowning you if you fail.
I’m working on a somewhat larger essay dealing with some of these thoughts, so they are not yet well organized.
The Sufi’s have a law called the Law of the Ladder. Essentially it warns that on the spiritual road in life you can only assist those who are one rung below you. Just as important, you can only be assisted by someone one rung above you. The sad truth of the matter is that not all of us hear the wisdom of the most spiritually advanced. And how sad, too, that if we sit up high upon the ladder the feeling of impotence in not being able to help those below.
Prescription: Help those you can help. Accept help from those who can help you. Do both and drink plenty of water. Call if you think your rung is one rung away.
The Sufi’s have a law called the Law of the Ladder. Essentially it warns that on the spiritual road in life you can only assist those who are one rung below you. Just as important, you can only be assisted by someone one rung above you. The sad truth of the matter is that not all of us hear the wisdom of the most spiritually advanced. And how sad, too, that if we sit up high upon the ladder the feeling of impotence in not being able to help those below.
Prescription: Help those you can help. Accept help from those who can help you. Do both and drink plenty of water. Call if you think your rung is one rung away.
We view people through the lens of circumstance… and a person who is quite unexceptional in one circumstance may be wonderful in another. We rarely see the best of others, and thus we rarely make use of the best they have to offer.
but what is life if we stand still and are *gasp* satisfied with that which we have? what is the point of continuing if we have nothing to strive for, nothing to reach for, no potential to push toward?
the word “elitism” has far too many connotations attached. i, for one, like the words “constant motion for momentum” or something vague along those lines.
i’ve tried sitting on my ass and it bores me to no end. to the point where i cried today because i hate my life because i sit in this damn chair getting no closer to my life goal, even if it is just a summer job.
thanks for your site, it’s daily entertainment to my mediocre summer life, sitting here at my desk job.
i once read a blurb that seemed to summarize me perfectly: i am in a flux of latent possibilities. i dream, each and every day, from small situations to larger picture of things that could be, and the one question that remains on my mind and always has a different answer to is: what if? it’s so powerful, no? a simple 2 words, “What If…”
heh. as always, i lost my point somewhere in the journey of this comment.
cheers.
Thanks for all the comments, gang. I was offline for a few hours.
Andreas, I would agree. Most exceptional people I know are very humble.
I had the good fortune, once upon a time, of working for a short time alongside one of the writers of Investors’ Business Daily’s regular column on success and successful people. I had always been a huge fan of IBD and that column in particular so I took a few minutes to excitedly pick his brain and share with him some of the writing ventures I had recently embarked upon for myself. After chatting for several minutes about all the wonderful people he’s met and interviewed, he stopped and thought for a moment. “You know…” he said, “of all the people I’ve spoken with over the years, there’s one thing they had in common: Each and every one of them loved what they were doing.”
Yeah, Max K. Love is powerful stuff, indeed.
Lord Krishna says to his pupil Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita, “Better one’s own dharma [path, aim in life], however imperfect, than the dharma of another perfectly performed.”
So I’m not sure what is “exceptional” as it’s quite subjective, but as long as one is committed to becoming or being exceptionally themselves you’re probably going to resonate with me.
There’s absolutely no need to reject or even avoid people. There’s a self-selection process in play. In my experience, as you become more exceptionally yourself, there’s almost a magnetic energy field (not literally, it’s a metaphor) created that naturally draws in ALIGNED people…and everyone else runs away as fast as they can
“What about you? What’s your plan?”
To work with people who do, and who appreciate, good work. To avoid people who worry about who is, or isn’t, “exceptional.”
Bring out the best in people. It’s there. Somewhere. If you can do that, THEN you can call yourself truly exceptional. Then you could even call yourself tremendously exceptional. You could even add an f word to it, and it would be alright.
I agree with Shazam.
Also with the idea that different people are exceptional in different areas. An exceptional Java programmer may not be exceptional at talking to customers.
Wow. So you only want to work with exceptional people. The question is, how can you tell who they are?
Erebus, that comes with experience (hopefully). Heh.
I’m going to run the risk of sounding like an awfully old-fashioned fuddy-duddy, but I’m going to stick my neck out and say, Hugh, your aims are going to be difficult to achieve, as there simply are no exceptional people in advertising. There just can’t be, it’s flogging toasters. Let’s ‘ringfence’ (wow, jargon) the word ‘exceptional’ and save it for Da Vinci, Shakespeare and Einstein, huh?
The poor are still paying some of my bills, so I can’t tell ‘em to fuck off just yet, though I hope to get there.
What I find interesting in conversations about security and insecurity is that in this new world order, seems that folks who have made a name with big corps or hot post-IPOs have instant cred for whatever POV they wish to toss out to the masses. Much as I respect Godin, would we care about him as much if he started out with Lycos or Infoseek instead of Yahoo!? (although I guess you could argue that those two might have become Yahoo-like with Godin). Same could be said for just about any of the myriad of brandblogs out there. There are some very good branding case studies on companies in marketspaces we’ve never heard of and could care less about, but it’s the folks who do the mainstream stuff that get read and discussed. As if nobody else could’ve thought of these tactics.
Those of us who don’t the right company names on our CVs have to work all that harder, even though we may be just as brilliant. I suggest lesson one is to do the internship with the big guys and hot guys were brilliance is all around you because osmosis works. Do it even if it means a term in poverty. You’ll get payback.
If you’ve already gone down the wrong path,figure out where brilliance exists and is still accessible to your lot. Then worm your way into it. Suck it up and ingratiate yourself. Never too late. If you’re game and can match wits with the folks you’re trying to impress, you’ll find success. If not, go back to doing what you were doing and learn to be content with it.
As for your critics, blogs are about POV. Nothing else. Any consistent POV can find a market. I happen to like yours. It’s challenging.
I think “pretentious asshole” as a brand is perfectly legitimate, provided it sells. Not that I’m suggesting that’s my feeling about GV, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Most individuals commonly accepted as “great” worked at other, less glorious pursuits. The filter of history removes that context leaving us with singular icons cleansed of the mundane struggles they endured.
Einstein worked as patent office clerk and developed the Theory of Relativity with his exceptionally intelligent wife. Shakespeare may not have been so exceptional if he never had to compete with the brilliant Marlowe. And Da Vinci started out like every other artist at the time…a young “studio slave” for an established artist. Their association with other talented individuals was a key factor in their success.
No, you’re not going to become an icon simply by hanging out with exceptional people. But if you might learn something other than who was caught copulating on the boardroom table.
Re: your “i.e. Start conversations with like-minded folk, turn them into markets. Heh.”
Coinversations ?
Jon Husband– you, know, conversations.
e.g.
“You sell computers? I make computers…”
Very Wirearchy-friendly, I assure you
Brilliant. Those who do not understand will be left behind. Some may choose to usher other’s along; however, I, with few exceptions, do not. Is this self-centered? Of course. But everything we do is for the self.
Look, unless someone knows something I don’t, we’re all mortal. So any time wasted in my life by mediocrity comes straight out of my allotted span. It’s like drip poison… bore me, and you might as well be injecting me with slow death. Of course, the same applies when the mediocrity is my own fault.
I think the key is to be so fucking brilliant that everyone but the very brilliant and the total fools will be too intimidated to approach you at all. How’s that for strategy? Use the brilliant people as a foil to spur yourself and the total fools as entertainment fodder…
and yeah, context. If you routinely take risks, you will spend some portion of your life in both camps: brilliant and total fool.
‘m with Erebus and Shazam on this one. Does that mean I’ll get
banned, as I’m sure they will if they continue to critisize your
arrogant and self-defeating methodology?
What about all the ‘exceptional’ people who function even further
above your own lofty level, will they be justified in throwing you and
your lesser ideas out with the trash, or will they just be people who
to you ‘don’t get it’.
It’s this pseudo-intellectualisation and justification of the process
of establishing hierachical values that’s most detestable. Its this
place from which history’s greatest iniquities and most regrettable
events have risen from.
Hitler anyone?
I agree. I seek out the exceptional (sex) but to achieve my goals I can not yet — realistically — afford to throw out the non-exceptional (cash). Throwing them out “like old furniture” would unfortunately be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater for me at this stage of my game. It concerns me, though, because dealing with dullards wears you down — speaking dullard-speak, breathing dullard-air. After a (short) while I can see that Jane Goodall smelled as bad as the apes; it’s hard to quickly soap up for high society.
Three more things come to mind that I can see affecting one’s ability to polarize themselves and live by your statements (not to play into calling you Moses, but if your words are resonating true in one’s own thoughts). (1) Location. The ability to run across (sex) in BFE. So, you say? Move. — Thanks for playing, that’s my segue to #2 — (2) Personal trade-off. There are things we do — or, more often, that we do *not* do — that go against our ambitions to only make those choices leading to a “life of exceptionals”. For myself, staying near my four-year-old daughter trumps anything. Everybody probably has at least one of these. The challenge here is not using it as a “crutch rationalization”. (3) People are not Ginsu knives. Is that a prerequisite to be exceptional? Crises dull or jagged the edge. I would warrant to say that striving to sharpen that edge again shows merit as exceptional — but in the meanwhile are you truly a dullard? Food for thought — I myself have not fully digested.
I appreciate your thought provocation. I want to pass along something I think you — and others here — can appreciate.
Herman Melville wrote this letter talking about Ralph Waldo Emerson and his philosophy:
Nay, I do not oscillate in Emerson’s rainbow, but prefer rather to hang myself in mine own halter than swing in any other man’s swing. Yet I think Emerson is more than a brilliant fellow. Be his stuff begged, borrowed, or stolen, or of his own domestic manufacture he is an uncommon man. Swear he is a humbug — then is he no common humbug. Lay it down that had not Sir Thomas Browne lived, Emerson would not have mystified — I will answer, that had not Old Zack’s father begot him, old Zack would never have been the hero of Palo Alto. The truth is that we are all sons, grandsons, or nephews or great-nephews of those who go before us. No one is his own sire. — I was very agreeably disappointed in Mr Emerson. I had heard of him as full of transcendentalisms, myths & oracular gibberish; I had only glanced at a book of his once in Putnam’s store — that was all I knew of him, till I heard him lecture. — To my surprise, I found him quite intelligible, tho’ to say truth, they told me that that night he was unusually plain. — Now, there is a something about every man elevated above mediocrity, which is, for the most part, instinctually perceptible. This I see in Mr Emerson. And, frankly, for the sake of the argument, let us call him a fool; — then had I rather be a fool than a wise man. — I love all men who dive. Any fish can swim near the surface, but it takes a great whale to go down stairs five miles or more; & if he don’t attain the bottom, why, all the lead in Galena can’t fashion the plummet that will. I’m not talking of Mr Emerson now — but of the whole corps of thought-divers, that have been diving & coming up again with bloodshot eyes since the world began. I could readily see in Emerson, notwithstanding his merit, a gaping flaw. It was, the insinuation, that had he lived in those days when the world was made, he might have offered some valuable suggestions. These men are all cracked right across the brow. And never will the pullers-down be able to cope with the builders-up. And this pulling down is easy enough — a keg of powder blew up Block’s Monument — but the man who applied the match, could not, alone, build such a pile to save his soul from the shark-maw of the Devil. But enough of this Plato who talks thro’ his nose. –Letter to Evert Duyckinck, March 3, 1849.
–fin– Scott