Along the same vein as Yvon Chouinard’s Let My People Go Surfing, The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness is the business philosophy handbook from the marketing, advertising, and PR firm Ogilvy & Mather.
The book is a roadmap for the desired organizational culture at Ogilvy & Mather and clearly articulates the unique culture they espouse: one focused heavily on creativity.
The book outlines eight simple virtues of an organization where creativity is pervasive:
- Courage
- Idealism
- Curiosity
- Playfulness
- Candour
- Intuition
- Free-Spiritedness
- Persistence
These eight virtues are common to creative people down through the ages. They are our path to recognizing our own inner greatness. Together, they should represent the distillation of what is best in this company. We must live by them and for them.
1. Courage
If fear is our principal adversary, then, courage is our chief ally. It is the first of the eight creative habits for good reason: it is the habit that guarantees all the others.
In the absence of courage, nothing worthwhile can be accomplished.
2. Idealism
Helen Keller, the deaf and blind activist, was asked by a journalist what she thought would be worse than being born blind. She replied without missing a beat, ‘to have sight and no vision.’
3. Curiosity
‘He who no longer pauses to wonder and stand rapt in awe,’ Einstein pronounced, ‘is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.’
It is only in the open state of curiosity that we can explore, dream and make babies in our heads.
For a start, we have to ask stupid questions like a pesky 6-year-old.
Once again, Einstein has something to say on the matter (as well as proving that he would have made a very short-lived cat): ‘I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted,’ the physicist said. ‘I am only very, very curious.’
4. Playfulness
David (Ogilvy) never entirely grew up.
He would heckle in meetings, throw chocolate cakes at dinner parties and roll down grassy slopes in Brooks Brothers suits.
He told us to develop our eccentricities while we’re young so people would not think we’re going gaga as we got older.
Like all creative people, David knew that necessity may be the mother of invention, but it is horseplay that’s most certainly the father.
5. Candour
We are a company of problem solvers.
Our job requires us to be brutally honest and totally dedicated to the truth.
For unless we know the truth, in all its unlovely details, how are we going to go about the business of problem solving.
The tendency to be nice and avoid telling the truth is so omnipresent in human beings that it can properly be considered a characteristic of human nature.
6. Intuition
We waste our beautiful mind by leaning lopsidedly on logic.
We are in the business of creativity and discovery. What clients value most about us is our ability to find one-of-a-kind solutions for their business problems through intuitive leaps.
7. Free-Spiritedness
Ironically, most agencies fail to grasp the fragility of the idea-generation process.
The notion that bureaucratic sausage factories pumping out fodder for meetings will solve the problem is ludicrous, as are the box-ticking, paint-by-numbers follow-up sessions.
The work is, not infrequently, as dull as the meetings that precede it.
Bureaucracy has no place in an ideas company.
8. Persistence
If the client kills your day, do him a better one.
If he kills the better one, do him an even better one.
If he kills that even better one, do him your damn best one.
Dogged determination is often the only trait that separates a moderately creative person from a highly creative one.
If you’re interested in reading the book for yourself, you’ll have a very hard time finding it on the open market (as the Amazon link above attests). To learn more this video does a great job of summarizing the eight virtues. You could also listen to The Knowledge Project Podcast Episode #19 with Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather.
