At Spikes – the big ad conference in Singapore that is created by the Cannes Lions team – all sorts of weird and wonderful people speak. Including me !
Well, the Ogilvy team had invited Sir Jackie Stewart, the Formula 1 hero – who is known for his charm and arrogance, his fast driving and racing safety advocacy and for being a story teller.
He gave us his top tips for success… after he’d told us how he “made” famous ad man, Sir Martin Sorrell, “he used to carry my bags.”
His top tips were preceded with the story of why he was wearing a suit today. Because he’s being paid to speak and he feels he should look the part. That’s important, he tells us. So his top tips included:
- Be well dressed and prepared
- Put in more hours than any one else
- Under promise and over deliver
- Ask for advice. Find two mentors.
- Always call people back quickly
- Choose the best people you can lay your hands on
- No free lunches
- Find new ways of doing things. All the clever people think down the same road and its very congested…
I love that last line. It was part of his story about being dyslexic and therefore being “thick, stupid, dum” at school. When you’re not smart he says, you have to think differently to get ahead because you can’t do things in the normal way as well as the others.
What a great line: All the clever people think down the same road and its very congested…
Listening to stories 
Oct 4, 2013 at 6:00 am
a great line indeed James. Makes me wonder where all the world of digital engagement is going. Maybe bring back the big TVC, print and radio ad, and take Jackie out to a long lunch (but make him pay)
Oct 4, 2013 at 10:26 am
Ha! I met a creative director at the Spikes Awards afterparty. He told me and the headhunter I was chatting to that he knew that TVCs were about to make a comeback in the hearts and minds of marketers.
Ie some people “think different” and they are the heros. Others want to turn back the clocks to their halcyon days!
But that’s why Frontfoot is a great name for a consultancy. Not Backfoot.
Yep. Let me know when we’re having lunch with Jackie. (But he’s Scottish, so we’ll probably have to pay!)