402. Why Not! Let's Give That a Shot.

“I was always 1st level Art at school. So I was pretty good at sketching and art work.  But I realized, even back all those years ago, that artists were going to be a dying breed in the sense that computers were starting to come in.  And I thought to myself, I better start using these skills in an area whereby it won’t just be turning into The Flint Stones tomorrow.  An artist might be starving if he didn’t use those creative skills for a bigger platform. So I got my marketing degree at ‘uni’ [university] which lead to getting a job in the advertising department of a big retailer. I ended up climbing up the ladder there to become a marketing manager of some high level.

While John worked with the large department store, they were running a number of sweepstakes, contests, scratch games, coupons for gift promotions. “I could see that there were a lot of these ‘artificial sales stimulants’ working very, very well, and I thought, ‘Even a big brand like this retailer is not just relaxing and sitting on their brand.  They’re actually doing direct response things that are stimulating artificial responses from people to get them into their shops. I’ve got a bit of a creative flair in that department. Why don’t I leave and set up my own sales promotion agency and then deliver those sales promotion techniques, not just to retailers, but to all sorts of businesses.’ And that’s what I did.”

I’ve probably fallen into that category of people not always doing what they love. We all want to follow our dreams, but sometimes we are in circumstances where we have to just suck it up and do what we have to do. Having six children and my wife’s parents, who were quite poor, there were many years where I was trudging along doing stuff that I really didn’t enjoy, but I was feeding 10 people. From time to time people would say, ‘Do you enjoy what you’re doing?’  And I would say, ‘Not particularly.’ It wasn’t much ‘fun’ printing trading cards, but I had to do what I had to do.”

1) For young people just out of school, the retail sector is a fantastic training ground for learning all the tricks of the trade–not just in terms of general marketing online and offline, but also customer service.

2) No matter your age, hang around the right people. You are who you hang with.

3) Be open to the possibilities of new ideas and new ways of thinking. Be a person who says, “Why not? Let’s give that a shot,” rather than a person who just says “Why?”