NORTHERN PLANNER

Rob’s posted a couple of related things today.  The first is about Lauren’s frustration with not fitting into a pre-judged opinion of what she should like. The second one is about knowing when to give up.

Rejection is a fact of life, I hurts, it’s not fair, but it happens. This week I got some (what I thought was) great thinking rejected. It was backed up by solid evidence, the insight was stinging, but, as is their right, it didn’t chime with their personal opinion so that was that. It’s maddening, frustrating, unfair and, well……

But it’s part of being a planner and it’s part of life. You’ll probably go through at least two agencies before you find one that fits. Creatives will refuse to have anything to do with some of you’re briefs, just because they can. And a good chunk of your best thinking will never be used. That’s why I get nervous about criticising other agency’s work, since what runs isn’t their decision alone.

So what do you do when it happens? Do you sulk and take your bat home? Do you curl into a ball and moan at the unfairness of this cruel world? Do you give up and look for another profession? No you bloody do not. You pick yourself up, be thankful you now know what you have to do to turn it around (find a new idea that will work for someone’s opinion in my case this week) and do something even better.

Never stop, enjoy the battle, relish the challenge. The end is never as much fun as the start.

That’s a very Northern view of things of course,  but Yorkshire Grit can be very useful sometimes.