Focus on the work, and other ways to stay sane
The last five people I've asked for advice about the advertising industry, working at Grey, and starting any new job or excelling in a job have said the following: Focus on the work. If the work is good, it speaks for itself. And, you're usually safe if the work is good.
People want you to produce good work. That's it. They don't care as much about politics, about being friends with the right people, about the million extracurricular activities you do on the side. They don't care about excuses, about why you couldn't get it done. While being involved in extracurricular activities at work is notable, and networking is a never-ending pursuit of gaining those +1s and LinkedIn connections (she writes semi-sarcastically), it's always about the work.
In advertising, we get so hung up on networking, on schmoozing, and on having the right connections in our portfolio. On awards, conferences, and such. But, what about the work? Is the work good? If not, we need to focus on the work.
Have you ever seen Rushmore by Wes Anderson? Jason Schwartzman fails out of St. Johns/Kinkaid/Rushmore by focusing too much on extracurriculars. The moral of the story here is simple - he should have just done his homework. While the intent was to conquer the world, had he just focused on the work, he could have done more.
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People have said we're brands. I disagree; we're humans. But in the sense that humans have reputations, we have to always make good work by focusing on the work part of our reputation.
There's a lot of noise in the world around us. If we focus too much on the clutter, the chaos, what's not working, why we don't have XYZ, it's easy to veer off course.
Focusing on the work allows us to get in a meditative flow - a state of existing and being that produces great results.
The advertising industry is rifled with trifling layoffs. To stay above the layoffs, to float above and rise to the top of the foam to be la crème de la crème, we have got to focus on the work and make it good.