If you belong to an ad agency, you’ve probably heard this before — young guns get the whole new media, social marketing, web 2.0 bit (argh, so many buzz words!) but at the end of the day we always defer to the higher authority of clients who have decision makers who do not understand Internet Marketing.
When you stare down at the precipice of uncertainty, it sometimes means that you’re looking from the wrong direction. And it is the same with predictions and musings of every writer that “this year will be this..” or “this year won’t be more of that from last year…” But I’ve noticed though — and thank the holidays — that the new year is usually a gift providing incentive to going back to your roots. With friends coming home (and yes I still have relatives coming home till mid Feb for family nuptials), it is becoming more and more apparent how I see myself in the light of friends: the formative years, family, and going back to this quasi time warp makes me see decisions that I’ve made in light of where I’ve come from.
“If you are lost, always remember your roots.” Sasuke once told Naruto.
Ah the Good Times. I write this in perspective to something Anton Diaz blogged about a couple of days ago when I met him, Regnard Raquedan and Prof. Lim from AIM. It was a comfortable meeting, with much allusion to the fact that a lot of my roots were painted among the walls of the Asian Institute of Management (where both my parents met – my dad was a student, mom was the professor’s secretary — hee!).
Anton writes:
This was a significant day for me. I met with Professor Ricky Lim of AIM, Regnard Raquedan of AIM blogger fame and Jayvee Fernandez of abuggedlife. We shared a common vision of transforming the Asian Institute of Management (AIM MBA School) into being the foremost recognized educational institution for Internet Marketing and Social Marketing in South East Asia.
I took in a teaching position last year at AIM (yes, dad was proud – he taught case study there as well). The goal was to set up a series of electives for social media marketing – AIM being the premier in case studies and having a rich history in MBA’s – and paired together with several mavens from the local new media scene. I was point of contact. We brought in Anton. Regnard was, by default the famous “AIM blogger.” There are a ton more. I love meeting brilliant people who want nothing less than changing this country for the better. It’s my passion. It’s what makes me completely happy.
And we really do plan to grow this into something big: I’m surprised I can even write about it.
Ah, The Good Times. And it, I assure you, always comes from roots.
I abandoned myself to certain realities when I was a lot younger. That first, in order to keep to a certain lifestyle, a job in education would definitely be noble, but not practical. I was young and restless. Second, I believed in the philosophy that you can’t teach what you don’t know and being a fresh grad with barely any experience in worldly things would pale me in comparison to Richard Dreyfuss (who bares a startling resemblance to Rico’s dad) in Mr. Holland’s Opus or Robin “O Captain! My Captain!” Williams in Dead Poet’s Society.
So after college, I had in my arsenal a whole bunch of theories on andragogy (adult learning), child psychology, “best practices” and teaching philosphy. I was envious of friends who worked for the big agencies like Ogilvy, the McCann group, BBDO, etc. It was then I began to doubt having taken the wrong course. Deep inside though, I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe not entirely. But I guess being hard headed (dalawa ang puyo ko) I wanted to convince myself that I was right.
Steve Jobs, in his “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” 2005 commencement speech addressed how past decisions will only, but always, make perfect sense much later on, …you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future..
So I trusted. I gave up Integrated Marketing Communications for a Development Education course. I gave up working in PR or advertising so I could do some work in Batangas with farmers and in Negros Occidental Oriental for a family farm school, not to teach, but to develop curricula. (Hyuk) I guess the joke’s on me as I’ve wounded back working with agencies for PR and advertising.
And my units in Education? Well, this letter only proves one thing.
That Steve Jobs was right. 🙂