I heard a great fact about expertise on Radio 4's Front Row last night. Apparently, no matter how much talent you have, it takes 10,000 hours of practice and learning before you become a world class expert. Athletes, musicians, trapeze artists, philosophers - planners even.
That's why reading things like Adliterate, Scamp, Russell, Gareth, Rob or any other home for experienced thinking is such a double edged sword. It's seductively easy to quote them so much you end up believing the words were yours, or pinch some strategy instead of banging your own head against a brick wall.
And who can blame us? We want to do great, inspirational stuff too. Problem is, we have years to go before we reach that level (if we ever do) - and by definition, what's right for one brand will be wrong for another. It's so easy go insane not being able to make you're thinking watertight thanks to the start being an APG case study rather than a good observation.
Of course, we should all be striving to litter every single creative brief with gold, no matter how dull received wisdom tells you the category might be. The bar is that high precisely so we can strive to reach it....someday.
One of the most rewarding clients I ever had was a B2B client who created computer software for labs. It was a victory to simply understand what they did, let alone turning it into a brief that sang. The work was good enough to make you weep and MY GOD IT SOLD! And what a way to learn.
So don't expect it to be easy. And anyway, getting there is half the fun.
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