Guest Post: John Burke // @justonlyjohn

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The natural world aside, if you distill down any human activity that is truly inspiring to others, the one common element I believe they all share is that there is passion driving them. I’m not talking about some sterilized passion; I’m talking about the real deal. The kind of passion where recognition is secondary. Nothing of any realness, authenticity, or lasting effect gets created without it.

Far too many people I know in advertising, let alone other ‘less creative’ careers, have no real driving interests outside of work. Hell, they aren’t even that interested in advertising when it comes down to it.  Anyone I have ever hired or would ever hire must be into something, anything, whole-heartedly. I believe that passion is transferable. That if you have it for one thing it can, or better yet will be, naturally re-directed to everything you do. This may sound obvious but I’d ask you to look around and see how many people actually are dedicated to being the best they can be at something that they don’t get paid to do. There aren’t that many.  

The banal and hackneyed conversations floating around about what creativity means are perfect examples of this lacking in a lot of people.  Like that (in)famous 1%’er said: “If you have to ask how much something costs, you can't afford it” ……or something like that.

*picture by Dave Pires