Legend.

One word descriptive of my friend and mentor, Jim Smyth:

Fierce.

Jim created an extraordinary life by any measure. His family loved him, and his professional community carried great respect for him over his 55 years in the global advertising industry. Jim passed away peacefully on October 19th at the age of 81.

I am a better person, thanks to Jim. And I am not in small company, as Jim enjoyed friendships and admirers all over the planet.

Jim was an artist. His creative eye was keen. His taste was timeless. His thirst to create value was unquenchable. He brought these intangibles and a healthy appetite for risk together to found and build Optimus, arguably the world's first full service post production house. He sold Optimus in the 80's, giving Jim what most everyone else would readily take, a clear path to ride into the sunset.

Instead, he went to work. Again. He pulled a venerable brand, The Clio Awards, out of the ashes in the mid 90's, restored its luster in the global advertising community, and then sold the Clio Awards to AdWeek.

Denying himself yet another ride into yet another sunset, he and his wife Ellen later acquired New York Festivals.

Jim created through Optimus, and then honored through Clio and NYF, the world's most creative work in the global advertising industry.

Early in my build of ProActive, 25 years ago, Jim gave me the opportunity to produce the Clio Awards over several years. Clio was arguably the toughest audience in business events, and Jim was a tough and fair client. The Clio Awards as a marquis event put my business on a different level. I will always appreciate the role Clio played in building ProActive, a business I crafted and loved over many years, in part with the benefit of occasional advice from Jim.

At Jim's home on Lake Michigan over the last several years, with the benefit of healthy pours of Jameson, we would discuss our families and our life's work for hours at a time. We celebrated our wins and dissected our losses. I am much richer in knowledge and perspective from those treasured conversations with Jim.

A few years ago, I asked Jim what kept him in pursuit of his next brass ring, having already grabbed several of them. He gave me an uncharacteristic one word answer.

Fear.

In spite of Jim's extraordinary accomplishments, he held onto a bit of fear to keep himself in a mindset to create more and more value. I was struck by his answer, as Jim was in my view to that moment, fearless.

He encouraged me to keep a bit of fear handy throughout my life, no matter how much success I attain. So I pass his advice on to you.

The world is giving us all good reason for concern, and even a bit of fear at times, as we continue to build our lives and careers through extraordinary change.

If you were to ask Jim, that is OK.

With ample thirst to create value and our talents in our individual pursuits in life, whatever they may be, great things will come our way.

Thank you, Jim. Tonight's pour of Jameson will be with gratitude, and in your honor.