If you work as a creative, chances are your job isn’t nearly as glamorous as you imagined it would be in portfolio school. Like the kid shooting hoops in the driveway, or practicing his pitching  on the mound, you most likely imagined yourself becoming the hero by applying your skills against adversity. Instead of sinking the championship winning goal like Michael Jordan or shutting down the bats in the World Series like Curt Schilling, you probably saw yourself accepting a Cannes Lion and then having your pick of jobs anywhere in the world.

You may have even seen something like this happen to a few of your classmates who didn’t even seem all that special back in the day. But for some reason, you’ve spent your career in various cubes cranking out ads for tampons, frozen peas and telephone calling cards while they jet off to Cannes or take a job in London or Amsterdamn as a hot-shot CD.

And for the thanks you get for this? You get fired when a big account goes away while the prodigy team gets a bigger office. Are the stars against you? Nah, it’s just the odds.

Unfortunately, agencies don’t need more than one superstar to hit clean up. They need 24 players that can step up to the plate and get on base on any given day. Even A-Rod had to give up shortstop to play on the Yankees. Do you really not think there’s folks at Goodby and W+K doing banners and door hangers wondering when a killer brief is finally going to hit their desk?

For every opportunity there is to receive a dream assignment, there are thousands where the client just wants something serviceable, and it’s up to you to struggle to get something that meets the brief and exceeds your CDs expectations.

To make the statistics even tougher for you, once you leave portfolio school your choice of partner is no longer yours, it’s your bosses. How are you supposed to win a gold pencil when you can’t even pick your partner? All I can say is a couple people do it every year. That’s right, a couple.

Does this mean creatives should be resigned to putting out crap? Hell no. Think of all the great movie actors delivering great performances who never get the recognition of Tom Hanks or Myrle Streep. Or Musicians who crank out ground-breaking music who will never, ever be nominated for a Grammy. Do they sit around and whine about it like a bunch of pansy creatives? Maybe they do, but they still perform their craft the top of their abilities day in and day out.

Also creatives, it’s not enough to be creative in one discipline anymore. Art directors need to have some typography, traditional design skills, web and flash programing knowledge besides actually being able to art direct awesome print, broadcast and web concepts. A writer, I’m often called upon as a photographer, social media and digital expert as well as leading the agencies social media presence. None of these other tasks increase the chances that I will become a superstar but they do make me a reliable utility that the CD or agency president can call on when needed.

And in the end, what do most creatives get out busting their ass on mediocre assignments, never being recognized for your genius, and sneered at by unappreciative account executives. You get to be creative every day you go to work. I’ll take that any day.

Posted on: August 12, 2010, by : Jimmy Gilmore