Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Rising Above

We're sick and tired of hearing about how competitive Advertising is. It all starts when you're applying for the major: only 30-something students get in. Now that we're all in, we take a huge sigh of relief. But this is just the beginning. The competition then transforms into not only something you get, but how well you do. I don't know about you guys, but when I heard about all the awesome Whipple's and Kickstarts that the older students have done, I was intimidated. Am I going to be able to reach that level? Why did they have to be so awesome? And it applies to the real world too. When I watch certain commercials or see different guerilla advertisements, I am awed by people's creativity and talent. I hope to one day look back at my life and career an consider myself a great advertising professional, but it's hard when you try to compete with others. Everyone lives in a different moment under different circumstances, you should compete against yourself- as cliche as that sounds. I used to freak out about Ad Team - what if we don't win Districts like all the past years? What if all our hard work and endless hours just isn't good enough? Why did they have to raise the bar so high last year? The truth is, it isn't about them. Both campaigns are different, both teams are different, and I think they are both unique and amazing in their own ways. So keep pushing yourself higher and higher, and if you turn out to be better, it's probably because you have learned from the best.

This commercial is one of my favorite ads and give me chills every time I see it, and it talks about exactly that.

Rising Above

1 comment:

nathanielks said...

thats really cool.

I love his line at the end "Or Maybe, you're just making excuses." Excellence is only a few beads of sweat, drops of blood, and lines of tears away =]

It's interesting to call into question what greatness is though. Jesus said that it's not a bad thing to be great. No, rather pursue greatness. But what is greatness?

" 33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.""

Greatness is service. Putting others first. Making sure that you put the other person before yourself and see that they succeed, instead of yourself. Does this mean you'll be walked on? Absolutely. But so was Christ. I mean, he died so that everyone in the world could know the Father. He put everyone before himself so that they could have something that they didn't have direct access to before. And that's the beauty of his death and his life. He died so that we could have. He rose so that we could live. Really, and truly live. What is Life? Knowing God (John 17:3). And out of this, we respond by pursuing God and pursuing greatness, a life lived in light of Christ's death and resurrection.

A life of Greatness: service.