49. Perseverance and Work Brings Joy of Success

Bolstered by the confidence he gained as a 10-year-old watching his father prepare for business meetings, Brent says he learned how to do well in interviews. Self-assurance overcame his less than stellar academic background and landed him a job at an ad agency that typically only recruited from top-notch schools.

As a boy, Brent often watched his adman father rehearse his client sales pitches and presentations, whetting his appetite for advertising. Later, a client at Christian Children’s Fund—“one of the two most brilliant people I ever met in advertising”—gave him courage to go out on his own.

Brent cites two lessons: Perseverance is the key. “It is so easy to give up, to get demoralized,” he says. At those times, he recalls his father’s axiom, “Smarter guys than you have failed and dumber guys than you have succeeded. The difference is work.”

Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy

Brutal Simplicity of Thought: How It Changed the World, by M&C Saatchi

Reading for Pleasure: The Gunslinger Series, 7 books, by Stephen King