Well, somewhat. Read on, and let me explain myself.
We’ve all come to that point in our lives. The point where our pre-determined future comes to an end and we have to make decisions for ourselves. Now, they are our own “life decisions”. As a young blood you’re like “woah, scary stuff!”
For me, it happened senior year of high school. I had been groomed somewhat to be a classical percussionist, something I suspect was my mother’s dream from very early on. When I was 7 she put me into the percussion program of the Preparatory Department at the Moscow Conservatory of Music. The rest was history … well, until I was 17 at least, and trying to figure out what I was going to do.
A lot of signs were pointing to a classical performance degree at a conservatory. I even auditioned at one, and was accepted. But, for whatever reason, I approached the whole thing with a logical approach and a focus on the future outcome. I asked myself if I was prepared to make a decision that would pigeon hole me into a Symphony Orchestra somewhere in the country for the rest of my life as a classical percussionist or a percussion teacher. The answer was no. I simply did not know enough about the world at that point to make a call like that. So I didn’t allow myself to do it. Instead, I decided to go for a “marketing” degree at a liberal arts school.
Since that initial decision, I tried to root all of my decision-making processes in personal logic and common sense. When, 2 years into my marketing degree, I decided that a business curriculum was too narrow and I was missing out on important skills like writing and communication, I switched my major to Journalism. My mother wasn’t very pleased. She even thought that I had only done that because I wasn’t confident I could finish the marketing degree. I pressed on, and let personal logic be my guide…
I have always been passionate about music, and was lucky enough to work with some music industry professionals as a freshman in college. They told me if I was interested in putting my music and business interests together, I needed to get involved with music business organizations within my university. While I worked on my journalism degree, I also took on roles as a music editor at the school paper, a music and business director for the college radio station and a member of the school’s concert booking committee. My on-campus job was as a librarian … at the music library. By some stroke of luck or, in retrospect, by half a stroke of luck and half a series of logical decisions made based on my personal interests, my college radio post helped me land a dream internship with Vitaminwater. It was all because I had been at the right place at the right place … or at least, the place and time I thought were right for me. I was staying true to myself, and was seeing a little bit of the pay off then and there (even though I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, and was more excited about my first real paycheck).
I took my first marketing job out of college (mind you I graduated as a Journalism major and still got a marketing job) for no other reason than to make enough money to quit and go on tour with my band at the time. I did not like that job, but I liked the idea of touring around the country playing music with my friends. When friends drifted apart and the band dissolved, there was no other reason to stay at that job. I went back to my original logic tree.
I wanted to combine music and business, my two passions. Unfortunately, this was 2007 and the music business was in shambles. People were getting laid off, major labels were freaking out … it was a bit of a mess. I started thinking about similar industries, that combined a creative function and a business aspect. This is exactly how I ended up working for an advertising agency in Cincinnati, instead of moving to New York to become an Executive Assistant at one of the four (now three) major record companies.
Advertising is a crazy business, especially for an inquisitive and logical mind. Some things are exciting and make a lot of sense. Other things are super exciting and make no sense at all. I was in there, and I was pretty hooked on it. Only problem was, I was kind of bummed to be living in Cincinnati as a 23 year old. It has changed since then, but back in the day, Cincinnati wasn’t exactly the best place for a single guy in his early 20’s. Back to the logic. Love the industry, hate the location. Translation: stay in the industry, change the location.
Now I was Chicago bound, and super excited about the move. Sexy job, sexy city, lots of friends from high school and college were already there to meet me. It was fun … maybe, a little too much fun. But hey, that’s how we learn. We get excited, have fun, make mistakes, and go back to the logic to proceed forward.
It took me a few years to figure out that the advertising industry wasn’t my cup of tea or, at least that, being a client services guy at an ad agency wasn’t. My logic kept me in the game, and I realized that what I wanted to be involved with didn’t live in Chicago, it lived in New York. I knew myself enough to realize that I was a product of my environment and very impressionable. I imitated my surroundings, and Chicago was changing me into someone I did not want to become (again this is very personal, and has nothing to do with Chicago as a city, which I still love). I used the skills I had acquired to transfer to another agency in New York City, but not before an interesting experience that tested my logic.
After struggling for over a year with my position at a big agency in Chicago, an executive mentor sat me down and asked me “what are you doing here?” I was floored, but not as floored as I was when he told me that he would “fire me if he had the chance, just to do me a favor.” He told me to figure out my focus quickly, before I became a “jack of all trades, master of none.” You see, all the while I was working at the agency and picking up all of these skills outside of my immediate job description. I couldn’t help myself … my pops had implanted this weird, natural curiosity in me. I have to understand how things work. I have to know the details. I can’t assume things, especially when my assumptions aren’t logical. It makes me feel like I’m missing something and I have to go figure it out. So, the mentor saw that I was all over the place and had interests in all of these different things but I wasn’t happy with what I was doing. That’s probably why he sat me down and told me to get out of there quickly. I appreciate it now because it got me to sit down and re-evaluate my pursuit, but it was also a bit of a blow to the decision-making process that had gotten me there in the first place. Live, learn, decide, proceed.
When I got to New York and began working for the new agency, the hunch that this wasn’t the role for me slapped me square in the face. New agency, new client, same feeling. I wasn’t happy being a client guy. It put the two sides of my brain in conflict with one another; the creative guy and the business guy upstairs were both very well alive, kicking and beating the crap out of each other. Terrible headache. So once again, it was back to the logic … back to looking at the facts and the things I have learned thus far to answer “if not this, than what?”
By now it was kind of like dating, in the respect that my experiences had taught me what I liked and what I didn’t like. All of my experimenting had lead me to a few key attributes that I knew were now mandatory. Smaller company. Creative environment. Management that empowered both sides of my brain, instead of just one or the other. I was determined to make moves and when I found the right opportunity, I made them. The only thing I still haven’t figured out yet is how I actually found a place that met all of those criteria, plus a slew of others. That’s why I guess luck does play a role, but in a lot of ways it was the logical decisions that allowed for that luck to find me.
The reason I am writing all of this now is because I recently read something in (I know, this is something I should’ve read a while ago but still) Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” One of the insights of Rich Dad when talking about jobs, gaining practical knowledge and life experiences was:
” You want to know a little about a lot.”
And granted, I kind of want to know a lot about a lot and it will eventually give me a brain aneurysm, it was good to see this point of view in writing because it had validated something I naturally ended up doing as a result of making logic-based life decisions that made sense to me. A lot of times we’re not quite sure if we’re making the right decisions, especially when those decisions don’t aline with “common wisdom” or the status quo. It made me think of the executive mentor at my old agency …. the guy did me a huge favor, but he was speaking for himself when he warned me about being a “master of none.” I prefer to disagree, and go for “master of all.” If I don’t succeed well, at least I went for it. But that’s just me though. It seems like the most logical choice.
