Hey LinkedIn, Squeeze This
Dear myself, two years ago. Listen up.
Fortune favours the eager
Talent is cool. Talent is great. Talent is important, but it ain’t as important as hard work and an eagerness to get amongst it.
Critical feedback is your mate
Don’t hate a mate. It may seem sucky at the time, but big ideas flourish from negative feedback. Ideas can always grow bigger and better, and other perspectives can help feed them.
Internal critical feedback is also your mate
Yes, yes. People have always told you not be too hard on yourself, and that’s important. Nobody wants to walk around hating themselves all day. It is, however, important to be realistic. Don’t expect to come up with killer ideas all the time. In fact, most of your ideas will be average. Even below average. And that’s great! A big part of the process is wading through the garbage to get to the gold.
So remember – as great as you think you are, you ain’t that great. And in turn that will make you great! See what I did there? Great.
Humble pie is the best pie
You are a sponge. You know nothing. Soak up every bit of knowledge you can, and take advantage of the switched-on people you work with. Don’t get cocky from one potentially cool idea.
Inspiring input = inspired output
Don’t do all your thinking at your desk. Get out. Watch bands. Go to gallery openings. Sketch stupid doodles. Watch birds. Do the stuff that keeps you inspired, otherwise your ideas will look the same, feel the same, sound the same, taste the same. Think different, some brand said once?
No one likes negative
Look, it was cool to be a neg in high school (yadda yadda Daria etc), but it’s not anymore. Nobody likes working with a pessimist. Don’t get me wrong, I love cynics (hello Larry David, my knight in shining cotton golf slacks), but try not to shoot an idea down too soon.
Oh, also! Don’t be so closed off that you can’t see the potential in an idea. That’s important.
Stand on the shoulders of giants
This is probably the one quote from Uni that has really stuck with me. And it’s true – find your heroes and learn as much from them as possible. Find a mentor to bounce ideas off, to tell you that you’re close to cracking it or that you’re way off. Find people in the industry that inspire you with their experience and stalk them on LinkedIn! Networking, baby.
Just joking. Do keep connected though, you never know where a contact might take you down the track.
Don’t Stress Less, Stress Better
Face it – we all stress out over non-formed ideas and looming deadlines. It’s a part of the industry. The thing to remember is (hopefully) no one is dying. Yes, you’re stressed. Yes, it’s a little scary, but in the end you can only do what you can do. Work at it, know you’ll get there eventually, and stop procrastinating like you’re back in high school.
Or do! And be prepared to wing it better than anyone in the world. Those are basically your two options.
Honorable mentions:
- Give the ppl what they want. They want .gifs
- Remember to like, monitor your ‘um’ and ‘like’ outlook when presenting
- Sometimes the answer to a tricky brief lies at the bottom of a schooner at the pub
Written by Bronte Wilson
Art Director at REBORN