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Walt Disney was a newspaper editor on the Kansas City Star - until he was fired because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Perhaps his boss was right at the time. The next thing Disney did was acquire an animation studio called Laugh-O-Gram that he drove into bankruptcy. Only then did Disney take his brother’s hand and move to Hollywood. You know what happened after that.
Perhaps you, too, have come to a stop because someone has shut the gate ahead of you? Or you’ve reached a crossroad and don’t know which path to take?
There’s a cliché lying at your feet. Pick it up and go adventuring. “Everything happens for a reason” and even if it’s a shit one, “something will turn up,” and one day you’ll tell someone stuck, “all’s for the best in this best of all possible worlds”.
There’s no shame in change. Brad Pitt was once a chauffeur, driving strippers to and from bachelor parties. He also dressed as a giant chicken and waved at drivers passing El Pollo Loco before he found a better road to travel.
Still not convinced?
Peter Carey was a creative director at Grey Sydney when he wrote War Crimes and The Fat Man in History. That gave another Grey creative director, Bani McSpedden, an idea. He offered Carey the chance to work two days a week if he became creative partner at the agency in his head, McSpedden Carey. Carey’s own history now includes nineteen books, four movies, twenty-seven awards including the Miles Franklin five times, being an “Australian legend” Australia Post stamp and one of just three authors to receive the Booker Prize twice. You can see how one thing leads to another, right?
Oh, and, not too long after after Carey left Grey Sydney, David Droga joined - as the mail boy.
Mimi Valdes was editor-in-chief of Latina and Vibe magazines at the end of 2010, when a bloke called Pharrell asked her to become founding creative director and vice president of his multimedia company, I am Other. It was Valdes who brought in French directing duo, We Are From LA. And Valdes who worked with creative director, Woodkid, to turn a song on the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, called Happy, into a 24-hour video that played the song on loop while different people danced, birthed more than 1950 tribute videos and made the song number one around the world.
So what about people at home and in the here and now?
Adam Ferrier was a psychologist, at first in private practice and later in some hardcore jails, before he became a consumer psychologist, a job he describes as “market research, brand strategy, and cool hunting (as cringe worthy as it is) for various clients”. When Ferrier came to a fork in the road, he chose advertising strategy. That worked out rather well for him. He is now global chief strategy officer & partner at Cummins&Partners.
Jules Hall, chief executive officer and founder of The Hallway, kicked off his career as a business analyst at Accenture in the UK. In January 2000, became technology company, Digiterre’s, first employee – a sales manager. When Hall reached a crossroad, he went sailing. Professionally. For six months. Then the Sydney-Hobart and Australian Nationals showed him what Australia is like. He liked it. Jules worked at two digital agencies in Australia before he became the Hall in The Hallway.
Between a rock and a hard place there’s always a path. Find it and take it.
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