However cryptic, this week’s Whip is one of Stan‘s best. Give yourself some time to think–enlightenment will come.

Another weekend rolls around. Another Saturday morning where I sit and wonder what on earth I’m going to write for the Monday Whip.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on a big pitch, which has proven an excellent source of Whip material.

But now the dust has settled on the pitch I found myself sitting staring at a blank piece of paper.

Much like I do every day it work.

And much like I do every day at work I scribble a few thoughts, toss around a couple of ideas, then get started.

Most times it’s a struggle. Sometimes it comes within minutes. But unless I overcome that piece of blank paper I will have nothing.

And nothing isn’t going to inspire you. Nor will it keep me in a job.

Dude, don’t think so much, you’re gonna give yourself a headache. Simplicity is the key. Sit down, make some stuff, and listen to Stan.

While working on a pitch recently I watched suits and strategists going around in circles arguing propositions.

Not just for an hour or so. But for days.

Without a proposition there is no brief. And without a brief work cannot commence.

Or can it?

My motto is to worry only about the things that you can control.

I can’t control the circular habits of suits and strategists. So I put pen to paper instead.

Rather than waiting, I start generating.

So by the time the brief is ready I already have a body of work.

Obviously much of it will not be right or even usable, but by exploring many different territories with complete creative freedom, I will almost certainly stumble across one or two ideas that fit the brief.

Which means that when work is supposed to commence, I am already halfway there.

Today is a public holiday and our man Stan is whipping from his office. So this advice couldn’t be more real.

If you’re looking for a job as a creative you’ve got it all wrong.

Why?

Because it’s not a job. It’s a lifestyle choice.

As I type this I’m sitting in the agency working. It’s Sunday morning.

I was here on Saturday too.

And suffice to say I am in the office right now. On the Queen’s Birthday.

My wife tells to make sure I take some time off in lieu.

I just grin and say it is what it is.

Because working as a creative isn’t about doing 9 to 5. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in. Whenever and wherever it is required.

If you want a job where you go home every day at 5pm go work in a bank.

Opportunities for a job, internship, new love or random cool thing are around all the time. But, as Stan sees in you all, would you know what to do if you saw one?

Last Wednesday I joined a selection of Melbourne Creative Directors for Portfolio Night. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it’s like a cross between speed dating and showing your folio.

Without wanting to overstate it, the night is pretty much a chance in a lifetime for aspiring creatives, as it allows juniors to hawk their wares to around a dozen CDs over the course of a single night.

Notice how I said hawk their wares, not show their folio? Well sadly many of the kids that I saw came simply to show their folio.

I’d say I saw around a dozen kids on the night. And all of them had at least one interesting piece in their folios.

But very few of them came prepared to make the most of the opportunity.

I asked every person I saw if they had a business card. Two people gave me a card and one gave me a cd of their folio. But the others didn’t have anything for me to put on my pinboard or keep in my drawer.

Which is an opportunity missed.

This week, Stan reminds us all that getting things done relies on one thing and one thing alone… Stopping. Because stopping means finished, and finished means do something else.

The PR machine kicked into overdrive last week for the 40th anniversary edition of the Rolling Stones’ album Exile on Main Street.

Generally regarded by fans and critics alike as the greatest record the band ever made, at its time of release it was not well received.

People derided its loose, sloppy, dare I say it, shambolic sound. In essence it sounded as if they had released a collection of rough-hewn demos.

But over time people grew to love it and recognise its raw beauty.

This week sees the release of the anniversary edition, which includes a bunch of out-takes and unused songs.

I already have many of these out-takes, so was looking forward to hearing them polished up for official release.

Boy was I disappointed.

The Stones have messed with perfection. What was once rough ‘n ready is now overly overdubbed.
What made the original album what it was, was that the Stones knew when to stop.

Sure they could have smartened up a few songs, or even culled one or two, but they didn’t. They trusted their instincts and knew what they had created could not be improved upon.

You need to develop this kind of instinct for your own work.

Know when it can be better. Know when it isn’t quite there. And know when it is finished. Because if you don’t, you may find you overwork your work so much that the simple beauty of the initial idea ends up getting lost.

You may say you’re not afraid to fail, but are you really? It’s a question that deserves some deep thinking. Stan‘s got the perfect thought starter in a man who embraced it more than most…

One of my heroes died last week. Malcolm McLaren.

As a young person looking to live a life of creativity you can learn a lot from Malcolm.

He was an innovator. An instigator. A trouble maker. And a man of intense passion and belief.

These are traits shared by many (if not all) truly great creative people.

In a revealing interview with Andrew Denton, McLaren spoke about how it was better to strive and fail than to not have tried at all.

He learnt at art school that failure was something to be embraced not avoided. Interestingly “embrace failure” is the motto of Weiden & Kennedy.

And Weiden & Kennedy’s greatest contribution to our culture is, of course, ‘just do it’. Surely just another way of saying dare to fail.

Click here to watch Andrew Denton’s interview with Malcolm McLaren.

Sometimes it’s hard being a junior… But then you realise it’s waaaay easier than paying for a mortgage and trying desperately to keep your job, so you chill out and find a way to make it awesome. Sound like a good philosophy? Stan has an anecdote or two to help spread the good word.

In last week’s Whip I wrote about people failing to turn up for appointments. Why did I do this? Because people who make an appointment to see me and don’t turn up shit me. End of story.

However I should tell you that there is another side to this story. And it dates back several years.

As a young shitkicker I booked an appointment to see a Creative Director with my folio. I had to take time off from my day job to make this appointment, so you can imagine how disappointed I was when I turned up to find that the CD wasn’t even in the building.

His assistant apologised and made me a new time to see him.

Yet again I had to take an afternoon off work to make the appointment. Yet again the CD wasn’t there when I turned up. The third time this happened I decided the CD was obviously a dickhead and gave up trying to see him.

The lesson I learnt from this string of disappointments is one I still follow to this day. It’s a lesson you can learn from too;

Be nice to people as you scale the career ladder because chances are you’ll meet them again when you’re on the way down.

When was the last meeting you organised with someone in your industry? Did you go ahead with it or chicken out? You’d be surprised how often the latter happens to Stan…

When you make an appointment with someone to show them your work be sure to ask them for a number to contact them just in case something comes up.

The day before your appointment, I’d recommend you give the person a call to confirm your appointment.

After you have done both of the above, my advice is to actually turn up for the appointment. Yes, turn up.

I know it sounds like an obvious thing to say, but in the last month I’ve had a couple of people make appointments to show me their folio and fail to turn up.

Suffice to say if they ring me again I will not be making time in my seriously busy schedule for them.

I’m not telling you how to suck eggs kids, but you need to realise looking at junior folios is pretty low on the priority list for most senior people. So if they offer to make room in their schedule for you, don’t waste the opportunity.

A lot can happen in an instant. You could change someone’s mind, or make them happy, or impressed, charm their pants off, make them smile, or just feel good. But don’t confuse them, because Stan knows what he’s on about, and that won’t get you a job now will it?

For this week’s Whip I must tip my hat to Simon Veksner of BBH in London, whose headline I stole and whose wisdom inspired this piece.

When you sit down in front of someone to show them your folio you are at the mercy of their finger.

Believe it or not, a finger can flick through folio pages faster than the brain can think.

So you need to ensure your ideas are so simple and so clearly laid out that the person looking at them gets them before their finger goes to turn the page.

If your folio is messy. If your layouts are cluttered. If your headlines are not legible. Then your work is not instantly gettable.

And unless your work can be gotten in an instant, you will never beat the finger.

Listen to people like Stan, work hard, don’t whinge, don’t whine, do more than expected, surprise, build trust, make friends, know your place, and show some respect.

There are many things that contribute towards a successful career as a creative person. One of them is ego.

As the Skyhooks sang all those years ago, ego is not a dirty word. It is however something that needs to be managed.

So even though you might think you’re more talented than many of the people who have jobs, it doesn’t entitle you to go slagging them off on blogs or Twitter.

And just because someone doesn’t love your folio, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t send them a thank-you card for looking at your work.

Why is all this sort of stuff important?

It just is. Ok.

Because the people you meet as you climb the career ladder are often the same people you will meet as you descend that ladder.

So be nice. Show respect. And one day in the future, when you need to ask a favour, you’ll have no shortage of people willing to help you.