The act of doing things

Hannibal in the 2nd century BC managed to con a herd of elephants up a mountain in the Alps in the 2nd Punic Wars. It was a stupid idea. Elephants don't care for the snow. But guess wha' - he did it.

What was Thomas Midgley Jr. famous for? He strived to inadvertently cause the downfall of the human race. While at General Motors he invented leaded-gasoline. He probably should've stopped there. But, industrious critter he was, he didn't. He went on to invent CFCs - creating a hole in the Ozone layer in the process.

Lil John made a career from saying the same 7 words in his lyrics and one of them was 'dick'.

Where am I going with this?

People do a lot of creative things. Some stupid. Some immensely stupid. But they create. They make things.

Tangible evidence of humanity.

Being a creative in an ad agency it is assumed from my friends in other industries that I'm always on a jet plane or being fed grapes in the Costa Del Sol while on a shoot.

The reality is, the vast majority of my time I'm creating work that goes nowhere.

Now it isn't indicative of any one agency I've worked at... this statement goes for the pretty much every agency I've worked at (both good and bad) over the last ten years.

If you want a look into the life of a creative rewrite the same script or deck 86 times before the strat. pivots and you get to do it all over again.

I had a friend (I know) who worked at all the greats. Mother, W&K etc. He came over to my house to help paint. Free labor. I love it. Anyway, he said to me with a daubed brush in his hand that "I really like this". Enquiring why, he told me "I paint it, and it stays painted".

Says it all really.