I’m a huge fan of process. Having a great idea can’t really help you or your clients if you don’t have the process that gets you from a great idea to a great execution. Without great execution you end up with a so so. All the great studios, production companies, agencies and anyone who consistently produces great work undoubtedly also has great processes.

The inverse is obviously true. A bad idea extremely well crafted is still a bad idea.

Less obvious is a lack of purpose. Lack of purpose goes a little deeper than the project you’re working on. It goes to the why. Why are you working on the project in the first place?

We all face a lack of purpose at some point in our career. Some classmates I went to Portfolio Center with ended up at an agency they called “The Death Agency” since all they worked on were cigarettes and liquor ads. The restrictions on the work made it hard to do anything remotely fulfilling besides the fact that they were advertising poison. The nature of the work left them with no purpose besides putting food on the table and paying extremely high Manhattan rent. Unremarkably, they all quit as soon as they had a chance.

More than once I have found myself staring at a blank sheet of paper with the need to fill it with an idea for a miserable client, asshole boss and carping traffic manager. Stress was applied and shit got done. And I do mean shit. That shit ain’t in my portfolio. But at least the assholes were happy.

To do your best work, you have to align purpose with what you’re doing creatively. I’m fortunate right now to be working with clients I believe in. One client educates, another is trying to effect change in the financial industry for poor people and another is just a really great guy with a start up. My purpose is clear. Help these people do their jobs by doing mine extremely well. Apply my creative gifts with the best of my ability. This gives me the energy and positive motivation to do a great job.

I hope you can find the purpose behind what you’re working on.

Posted on: September 15, 2017, by : Jimmy Gilmore