Of Other Things To Do

Maybe I should organize things to do according to places to go, sports to try, food to eat, etc. But at the moment, it shall just be in a random (so me) list.

Of other things to do:
1. Attend World Cup and/or Olympics
2. Visit all continents
3. Ski on real snow
4. Diving
5. Go on a cruise
6. Learn a classical music piece by heart
7. Cook! Bake! Anything edible out of the kitchen!
8. Plant a tree on my birthday
9. Skydive
10. Fly a plane
11. Test drive a Ferrari and/or Maserati (yum)
12. Be fluent in another language (Arabic? Mandarin? Japanese? French?)

I've just finished reading about David Ogilvy. Loved it. Such colorful personality. I think I've found an ambition. It doesn't matter that I have so many interests, Jack of Trades, I'd like to think. It could turn out to be an advantage, not a weakness like I've always instilled in my thoughts.

Some favorite parts from An Autobiography: David Ogilvy is in Chapter 6, Fame and Fortune.

From page 129, which summary of his principles upon appointing leaders for his offices:

Some ways to control office politics:
1. Always be fair in your own dealings; unfairness at the top can demoralize an agency
2. Never hire relatives or friends
3. Sack incurable politicians
4. Crusade against paper warfare. Encourage your people to air their disagreements face-to-face.

A vital factor in morale is THE POSTURE OF THE BOSS.
If he is miserable, it will filter down through the ranks, and make the whole office miserable.
You must ALWAYS be CONTAGIOUSLY cheerful. (most favorite of favorite parts)

Superior service to our clients depends on making the most of our people. Give them challenging opportunities, recognition for achievement, job enrichment, and the maximum responsibility. Treat them as grown ups - and they will grow up. Help them when they are in difficulty. Be affectionate and human.

Pg 130 - Encourage your staff to be candid with you. Ask their advice - and listen to it. Ogilvy & Mather offices should not be structured like an army, with overprivileged officers and underpriviliged subordinates. Top bananas have no monopoly on ideas.

If you hire people who are bigger than you are, Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants; if you hire people who are less than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.

More of things I love from Ogilvy:

• The beginning of success is to be DIFFERENT, the beginning of failure is to be the same
• A Scottish proverb: Hard work never killed a man. Men die of BOREDOM, psychological conflict, and disease. The harder people work, the happier they are. (so true)

It is as difficult to sustain happy partnerships as to sustain happy marriages. Our partners should have these qualities:

• Stability, guts under pressure, resilience in adversity, deep keels
• Brilliant brains - not safe plodders
• Commitment to hard work
• A streak of unorthodoxy
• The guts to face tough decisions, including firing nonperformers
• Inspiring enthusiasm
• Speed in grasping nettles (ie: annoyance!)

On other lessons:

• You cannot bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them in buying it. You cannot save souls in an empty church!
• The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife. Try not to insult her intelligence.
• Advertising should be true, credible, and pleasant. People do not buy from bad-mannered-liars.
• The most important ingredient in any agency is the ability of the top man to lead his troops (addendum: conventional wisdom says that leadership is a function of three factors - the leader himself, the people he has to lead, and the situation)

Quote: I do not believe that fear is an ingredient in good leadership. People do their best work in a happy atmosphere. The physicists who first split the atom in Niels Bohr's lab were always playing practical jokes on each other.

Great leaders exude self-confidence. They are never petty. They are never buck-passers. They are resilient. They pick themselves up after defeat.

It does a company no good when its leader refuses to share his leadership functions with his liutenants. The more centers of leadership you find in a company, the stronger it will become. That is how Ogilvy & Mather became strong.

And I shamelessly told my Director, he is similar to Ogilvy. Hah. Talk about Incurable Politicians!