The Path to a Successful Career

Promo isn't exactly your garden-variety career.  Then again, maybe it is.  Let me explain...

A few years back, we were building a garden in the backyard.  Nothing fancy, but more than sod and a few bushes.  Our landscaper was doing the actual work, but we were involved with the planning, or so we thought.

The shrubbery went in, as did the trees, hardscape, watering system and flowers.  Then it came time to place the stepping stones. (I believe they were boquet canyon stones, but I digress.)

It seemed obvious where they should be placed, but the landscaper disagreed.  Instead, he said that in many Japanese gardens, they wait six months to see how the natural path evolves, then they place the stones.  This way, the garden grows into itself based on real-life experience, not what is mandated.

Very cool, I said, just like a Zen Garden, trying to show off the very little I thought I knew of this subject.  No, a Zen Garden is something else, he replied.   I just added it to the list of dumb things I've said. 

Which leads me to today's blog...  Isn't a career in entertainment advertising, or any career for that matter, built the same way?   We choose a direction, but there's no way to know how it's going to play out until real life enters the picture.

More often than not, we end up in areas that we didn't even know about when we set out on our journey, Grasshopper.

So, if there's so much unknown, how does one know if this is the right path?  As far as I can tell, as long as you feel at home with the ideas and the people of a given profession, it's the right one.

Personally, I love the rapport and camaraderie with fellow Promo Sapiens.  I love the concepting, strategizing, writing and producing.  I love when people across the country are familiar with something that was just an idea in my head a week ago.

Sometimes you're creating campaigns while leading a staff at a production company, the next moment freelancing for a network, then off on a multi-platform venture that just may revolutionize the industry,

And sometimes you've left the entertainment industry, but are still using your promo skills as a marcom director for a hospital, a consultant for your favorite non-profit, or even a website writer for your brother's tool-and-die company. 

The secret to your success?  Gotta go with the flow, baby, go with the flow.

Truth is, it's almost impossible that you could have predicted where you are today.  At the risk of beating a dead analogy, you never know what's around the bend.  

So be careful where you place the stones.  They just may get in your way.

Oooommmmm my!
-Ed Roth
edrothshow@gmail.com

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