My fist hit the table this morning. I was feeling passionate. Really passionate about my work.

It’s an empowering thing – feeling so passionate about what you do that you’re willing to sacrafice your hand. The one you use to write with, which is how you make your living.

My job doesn’t save lives and it’s good to keep it in perspective. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care deeply. It can have a profound impact on my client’s business and it also bares my creative signature. So I feel OK taking it personally every now and then.

Every creative person I know dreams about someday walking up to their client, their boss, their boss’ boss or whoever took a giant squeeze on their work and squeeze back. But instead they take yoga classes or just nurture their ulcers. I keep pictures of my little ones next to my monitor to make sure I remember what’s truly important.

In a creative business there are always enemies of the work. But like in most wars, they don’t know they’re the enemy – they just see themselves as acting in their own interests. For them it’s not personal so why the hell should I take it personal.

What I should really do is channel that passion back into the work. It can be therapeutic to harass that anger and write with utter ferocity. In fact, I wrote a pretty fun bulldozer campaign that way.

Posted on: March 25, 2010, by : Jimmy Gilmore