NORTHERN PLANNER

Good talk by Alex Bogusky here. I found the quote, "Experience is only useful if the future is the same as the past". 

Russell's picture, usual doodahs apply
 

I think there's a lot to be said for this. It's extremely unnerving to work with brand managers who still operate as if it's 1995 and Web 2.0 and stuff never happened – you know the type, do some telly, build a website, communicate product benefit etc. There are plenty of people who grew up on that stuff that find it hard to work any other way (it's even more terrifying when you come across this type internally).

But then there's another side to that. You're no good to anyone until you've made a few mistakes. The first time you break up with a serious boyfriend hurts more than the other deaths of relationships – you learn how to deal with it better. For myself, I'll always be grateful for swimming because it showedme how to deal with both success and failure early, it also taught me the value in hardship and difficulty.

I've also worked long enough in this very odd industry to know that the only thing you can be sure of is that things don't stay the same for long. Experiencing and dealing with change and upheaval makes you – you guessed it – good at experiencing change and upheaval.

Those old enough to remember the Thatcher recessions, or even the recession at the start of the nineties, or the advertising recession at the end of the dotcom boom were probably better prepared for what's happening in our lives right now.

The so called death of the agency model isn't that new either…agencies used to make money from media commission and do the creative for free, it's only relatively recently that media and creative split and creative agencies charged for their time. What's happening now is just another adjustment. 

Even if the detail of the future is different to the past, experience still counts – it's the mindset that matters. If you shut your eyes and ears and will things to stay the same, it's you're own fault. If you've embraced change and evolved with it, you'll do fine.

By the way, I don't entirely accept that the future is different to the past. It does get tedious to find we're listening in the 'Age of insert you're self serving epoch here'. There are few genuine upheavals in history – just the slow process of things gradually improving, a couple of steps forward, a couple back, some sideways but a general progress.

Anyway.