What do you call a freelancer who Isn’t just in it for the money?

In days of yore, ‘freelancer’ was practically a dirty word.

Back when loyalty counted for something, the lord would have his trusted knights whom he, or his father before him, had given land in exchange for troops and service when the drums and horns sounded for war.

These men (and occasionally women) were knights, men-at-arms, practically family.

They and their fathers before them had sworn oaths to defend the lord and his fiefdom to the death.

Freelancers, on the other hand, were just that: a free lance. Traveling mercenaries loyal to no lord who were just as likely to sack Constantinople as free the Holy Land, depending on who was easier to loot.

Is it any wonder that they frequently got the worst jobs—the most mind-numbing, soul-killing, life-threatening missions? If freelancers are only around to fight your money, then it’s best for your money if after the fighting there are no freelancers around.

Employers today may no longer be trying to literally work their freelancers to death, they’re still throwing them stuff nobody else wants to do—working late to produce the ideas that are least likely to survive, let alone taste glory.

But what if you took a more chivalrous point of view? Out of the same age from which the freelancer rode, also came the knight-errant. A warrior who tested his skills by wandering the land, aiding men and women from all walks of life.

The knight-errant lived by a code. Where mercenaries fought for money, the knight-errant fought for love. They embarked on quests to solve problems nobody else would.

There’s a reason video games about driven characters with noble purposes sell better than ones about desk workers and indentured servants.

These men and women were shining examples of what we could all be.

Why does this matter now?

Between automation, downsizing, daily predictions of an imminent recession, and the rise of the gig economy, it would seem the old retainer model of full-time employment is on its last legs.

We are entering once more into a period of great upheaval. And it is in these times when the institutions that enforce social norms are collapsing and our truth sources can no longer be trusted (our celebrities are secretly monsters, followers are bought, news is easily faked, and government is a circus), that we must rely instead on judgment of character and word-of-mouth. On older, more deadly serious markers of quality like integrity, and honour.

Time also to reckon with an exciting truth: we have always been self-employed, because our job security is totally dependent on us. How we carry ourselves, how we sell our solutions, how we execute on our promise. When your reputation is all that matters, then it’s your job to make sure it precedes you. And just as in times of old, the most-often told legends are about mighty deeds done in the service of others. We live in a world where several platforms exist purely to spread the word. That should be as much permission as we need to do the things our companies deem too risky, too expensive, too outside their interests. So pick a problem, the world and your community is filled with them, and vanquish it. Most political ads suck and the one good councillor out there running for election could use your help. Despite children screaming at the UN, the world still doesn’t care enough to reduce its consumption. The opioid crisis is still out of control. And if all of these are too grand for your level, there’s always the organization you’re in right now. Freelancers have an objective opinion that the right ears want to listen to, and you have the freedom to voice it that lifers do not. Don’t try to fix these issues because it will garner attention, generate profits, or even because they can be fixed by you alone. Do it because you are uniquely situated and skilled to do it, because that’s what knight-errants do.

The freelancer model is best-equipped to adapt to the modern economic landscape. Steady jobs are vanishing, so whether your craft is the sword or the pen, you’ll have to hit the road.

But that doesn’t mean you have to be a mercenary.

Your lance is finally free. That means the decision of which giants it will take down, is yours.

Note: I hope you enjoyed this post. More than any other, this has been one I’ve mulled over for quite sometime. I really believe that freelancers, and freelance creatives in particular, have a freedom and duty to act better and do more. What’s more, while freelancers are often left off credit sheets and award entries, you nonetheless deserve to be celebrated just as much as any creative. If you agree, please sign up to my mailing list for updates and ideas on how we can make this happen. Thank you! -Richard

Regret

Look at the opulence and grandeur of any cathedral and you can understand the success of the ritual of penance.

Buy forgiveness for your sins? More like buy the priest some new shoes and a bigger steeple. Am I right?

Beyond the cynicism, lies a reason why it works: for what is a sin but some action you regret, and what is penance but an attempt to atone for it—to make right what you did wrong? We all know God isn’t going to go back in time and reverse your mistake, but maybe, in a grand cosmic sense, this money or these prayers you just put forth will shift the balance the evil your sin caused with some good. Maybe it will make you worthy of forgiveness.

“But that’s not enough! My money won’t make a difference.” Then do something that will. If money or words won’t reverse the mistakes, then dedicate yourself to preventing the same mistakes from ever being made again. If it’s too late to do what you should have when you were younger, make sure others choose a different path. Even if it’s too big to fix, then a small change is better than none. You may not have forgiveness yet, but you can make room for it by getting rid of the hatred. While you can’t change what happened yesterday, you can set yourself up to feel good about tomorrow.

Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash

And if you should get offered penance by someone for wrongs they committed in the past? My answer would almost always be: accept. Regardless of whether it goes to you or some church-builder, the effect on the wrong-doer is similar. But the forgiveness that would lighten another’s conscience grows heavier on yours the longer you withhold it.

But who the hell am I to tell you what to do? Nobody, you’re right. The decision is yours. I’m certainly no authority, just somebody who’s made as many mistakes as the next guy, has helped make some right, and has many more he needs to fix.

We all have things we want to take back, and people whom we wish could forgive us. Don’t let refusals turn into more regret.

When Great Sucks: Why You Should Value Low-Hanging Fruit

Photo by H A M A N N on Unsplash

Perhaps the second greatest idea-killer after, “It’s already been done,” is “That’s low-hanging fruit.”

The phrase, often used with disdain by creative directors when judging work, implies that the strategy, concept, tactic or deck you’ve just presented is within reach of amateurs, requires little effort to produce, and thus isn’t great enought to be worth considering.

All professional creative people, be they writers, art directors, designers or technologists, are trained to go for what’s new and unusual. We’re supposed to challenge ourselves to climb beyond the easy ideas our mothers (and well-meaning account people) point out to us, go out on a limb, and pluck the perfect produce that lies beyond.

All well and good, if everybody’s aligned on procuring award-winning produce.

But what if the people paying you to climb idea trees don’t want a $1,000,000 apple? What if they want fruit at scale because they’re in the business of making pies? And the most efficient way to deliver isn’t to spend days climbing trees but to give one a rigorous shake and catch whatever falls out?

Too often creatives and even some agencies fail because they spend far too much time trying to get the golden fruit way out on some slender branch, only to fall flat on their face at the pitch meeting because their ideas aren’t ripe enough for public consumption or worse: they’re rotten to the core.

Meanwhile, we ignore the bounty beneath us and let someone else use it to satiate our customers. So that the next time our customers are hungry, it’s someone else that gets asked:

“Got anything great?”

Why You Should Work on Labor Day

Fresh cut grass, corn on the cob, great barbecue, and one last chance to wear white… if you live in North America, Labor Day is for chilling.

That part’s been true since the holiday began: A day to recognize the hard-working labor class who built our society, and also a day to give them some much-needed rest.

But we now live in an age where you barely need a reason to take a break. Google any day of the year and there will be at least one group that has made it their holiday. If those groups don’t apply to you, most employers will pay you for taking a “Personal Day”.

What’s more, technology has radically altered the relationship workers once had with their employers. Where companies once expected your unquestioning loyalty toiling away on their assembly lines in exchange for a secure and steady paycheck, that pact is all but broken today. Companies grow and shrink all the time, so layoffs are built into production cycles. And no company stays on top for long. Because you can’t expect guaranteed job security from employers, they can’t realistically expect loyalty from you.

Nor should you want it any other way. The opportunities to make a a bigger difference, a better living, or more satisfying work are greater than ever. For a 19th century laborer to start his own business, he would have had to step away from the assembly line to meet backers, spend days traveling to vendors in other cities, and waste hundreds of dollars buying machines and hiring workers. Today all you need is internet access and an etsy or fiverr account.

So regardless of your title or legal status, your real position at your current company is, effectively, “contractor”. Your real employer is you. And your real career is whatever you make of it. Workers back then weren’t privileged enough to go own way, nor did they have the means of production to take the trip. We have both, and way more free time to boot.

I’m not saying slave away for 24 hours right now: this is a day to honor labor and all your hard work, take the rest that you need. But Labor Day also marks the beginning of a new quarter in the year. As your own employer, reflect on whether the fruits you’re enjoying is worth the labor you’re putting in. Celebrate and set new targets if yes, course correct if no, but please take some time to take charge of our work. You need it more than you likely know.

Plenty of days exist for chilling, only one commemorates hard work.

Use today to make our labor count.

My Grandfather the Monkey King

For those who don’t know who the Monkey King Sun Wukong, star of the classic novel Xi Youji or Journey to the West is, he’s like the Chinese version of Odysseus, Bugs Bunny, and Superman rolled into one. A master of the mystical and martial arts, the immortal monkey Sun Wukong fights demons with a magical shape-shifting staff and is on a quest to obtain mystical Buddhist scrolls that will grant enlightenment to himself and all who study them. Most Asian kids have encountered his story in one form of media or another, myself included. We listened to Sun Wukong tapes in the car, watched live-action Monkey King videos bootlegged from China after school, and learned Chinese by reading illustrated children’s versions of his stories.

So when my grandfather told me he was the Monkey King in the flesh, and that I my favorite superhero’s monkey grandson, it was too thrilling for my 5 year-old self not to believe. Grandpa’s last name was also “Sun”, and he was from China. That was 99% of the proof that I needed. As for the last 1%?

“Grandpa, if you’re the Monkey King, where is your staff?” I asked.

“You remember those posts that connect the checkout counters to the ceiling at our local Chinese grocery store?”

“Yeah?”

“One of them’s my staff! I lent it to the owner so his store wouldn’t collapse. Luckily, no demons have shown up lately, or ol’ Mr. Zhao will have to find another way to keep his roof up.”

Myth confirmed.

Later I would learn that this desire children had to be connected to Sun Wukong—or any beloved character for that matter—was not uncommon. Long before he became globally recognized as the Little Dragon, Bruce Lee was demanding that his elementary school classmates in Hong Kong call him the Monkey King. Then there’s the news story about the boy who tied a blanket around his shoulders like Superman and flew off his roof… only to immediately land and break his leg.

Maybe you never read that story, but my aunt certainly did. One of the most disappointing days of my pre-adolescent life came when she took me aside and told me it was all a lie: the Monkey King isn’t real, there’s no way he’s my grandpa, and I definitely had to stop pretending or I would get seriously hurt.

So I did, because on some level I knew that what she said was true. If grandpa could clear vast distances with a single leap, why own a car or take a plane? If he was a master of magic, why didn’t he ever use it? Also, grandpa never seemed to remember which exact post at the grocery store was his. Every time I asked I got a different answer. But just because the details to my grandpa’s fiction didn’t check out the way my aunt’s facts did, doesn’t mean she was entirely right.

The stories we tell ourselves serve many purposes, and one of them is to encapsulate in its characters the enduring archetypes of our own personalities. What makes them resonate—what draws us to them and even want to be them—is the fact that they do what we would like to do when confronted with adversity. Demons may not manifest as physical beings, but we face symbolic ones all the time. Like the Monkey King, we can overcome them by acquiring the right tools, transforming our identities and mastering useful skills. In telling me that the Monkey King’s legend was his and that I was his descendant, I believe my grandfather was trying to impart the attributes that served both him and the character well, so that I could go on to live out its sequel.

Grandpa also knew that it was the certain immutable core qualities of figures like Sun Wukong—aka their character—interplaying with the infinitely malleable aspects of their world that change with every retelling that leads to the story’s enduring success and ongoing relevance. Whether warriors or athletes, tricksters or rabbits, magicians or scientists, all get adapted and evolved to help fans face the challenges of their times. Learning about Joseph Campbell while indulging my own interests in comic books, TV shows, video games, and all the other manifestations of popular and “high” culture, I recognized the ways in which old myths echo through new ones.

In this way, also, we are like our mythological heroes. Dragon Ball is Journey to the West retold in a science fantasy setting, Goku is Wukong translated into Japanese. And just as Goku owes his existence to Wukong and Superman wouldn’t exist without Samson or Hercules, we are also permutations of those who came before us, echoes of many of their core attributes. Some of these traits are useful for success in our times, others are not. As much as I inherited my grandfather’s cleverness and creativity, I also got his monkey-like temper and impulsiveness.

The result? Like any good sequel, my life turned out vastly different from my grandfather’s (he worked in Taiwanese politics, I’m a San Francisco writer) while retaining many similarities (we both emigrated from our birth countries in our youth and went through times when we struggled to make ends meet). Being able to notice the difference between what about our favorite stories and people are useful to our current reality (pluck and resourcefulness, for example) and what will hurt us if we try to act them out (the untested belief in self-propelled flight, as another) is the problem every one of us is tasked with solving in our lifetimes.

While I no longer believe that I’ll ever learn how to leap 18,000 miles in one somersault, or master 72 transformations like the Monkey King, and the posts from that grocery store are likely under a scrap heap in a landfill somewhere, I still believe that there is some Monkey King within me. Just as there is also some Superman, and some Bugs, and some Odysseus.

Most importantly, there is a lot of my grandfather that lives on in me. While his story ended with his passing, the sequel goes on. And I’m going to do my best to ensure it gets better with every retelling.

Diablo Ex Machina: Why You Don't Want to Live in a World Where "The Boys" Is a Hit

It’s no secret that I like comics and superhero stuff. So I’ve been puzzled as to why I so dislike The Boys on Amazon Prime.

I think it has to do with how much the comic book world revered Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. Like the superheroes in The Boys, the superheroes in these graphic novels also do immoral things. In Dark Knight Returns, it’s because the world has become a darker, more violent place, justifying a tougher, crueler Batman. In the original Watchmen, we gradually uncover the depths of immorality to which the book’s initially cheery heroes descended in step with that world, until an ultimate solution is needed to correct man’s (and superman’s) cruelty to their fellow humans.

However, while both books grapple with the question of just how much force is necessary and justified for their heroes to be meting out before the irreversible line between good and evil is crossed, The Boys pretends that line doesn’t exist. If the superheroes of The Boys’ world are using their powers to casually commit unspeakable acts of violence, then the show’s titular characters seem equally justified in returning the same, even reveling in it. That’s the trick in this story’s structure, the devil in the machine that gets you to think wanton carnage is okay, even as the spectacle of a woman getting her brain evaporated through her eye sockets by heat vision makes you want to vomit.

But it’s okay, we tell ourselves, because that world’s not real. It’s all make-believe.

But what if…?

What if, in addition to the hidden meanings that exist in the entertainment we’re drawn to, our choices reveal truths about ourselves? What if liking what we like says something equally profound about who we are? In his book, Superman on the Couch, Danny Fingeroth rightly points out that:

Given the ubiquitous nature of media and fantasy images, there is no longer a clearly defined dividing line between the two. Perhaps what superheroes really tell us about ourselves and our society is that reality informs fantasy, fantasy informs reality, and we have to be careful how we choose our heroes and our values.

So what values and heroes would a society be choosing if it embraces a hopeless world where Superman uses his powers to act out every single one of our darkest impulses—one where the only viable option is to hurt the powerful more than they hurt us?

To answer this, let’s compare two origin stories: The Boys’ Hughie, and The Dark Knight Returns’ Bruce Wayne.

In The Boys’ first episode, the Flash analogue, A-Train, recklessly kills the protagonist’s girlfriend, setting in motion the origin for The Boys’ protagonist, Hughie. Being the superhero team’s only African American, possessing the ability to run extremely fast, and obsessed with his own sneaker line, A-Train clearly mirrors our world’s sports stars. Wheaties box champions who cheat with performance enhancing drugs, abuse their spouses, and even kill innocents in DUI accidents. Seeking closure, Hughie finds footage of A-Train joking about his girlfriend’s death in a private superheroes-only club that confirms what we suspect about our own wrong-doing celebs. No matter how genuine their televised apologies may seem, we think, the bastard is secretly laughing about what he did. He’s too rich and powerful to feel remorse. He got off too easy. And so it goes: Hughie chooses vengeance and joins a group of superhero hunters, while the rest of us subscribe to TMZ, buy tabloids, and retweet anti-celebrity vitriol.

At first, I found the whole ‘superheroes as celebrities’ trope to be merely trite and tiresome. But then I realized it was more insidious. The real-world parallelism makes the heroes even more hatable, because our culture has no problem with tearing down celebrities. We ruin people we once worshipped, driving them to destroy themselves with our cruelty and the unrelenting savagery of our snark. After all, if the creme de la creme is actually sour, if our superheroes are really narcissistic, sociopathic, irredeemable super-villains, then why not fight fire with fire?

Because Batman, that’s why. While The Boys likes to pretend that good is a lie and only nihilism exists in order to allow for the gore and debauchery that ensues, The Dark Knight Returns presents an alternative path. Some five decades after his parents were murdered before his eyes, Bruce Wayne finds himself living under a Superman-backed tyranny. Crime is rampant. Gangs old and new roam the streets, a supposedly-reformed arch nemesis poisons TV studios full of innocents, while suits and shrinks try to cover up or explain away their villainy. Worse still, we discover that Superman himself was responsible for the deaths and maiming of the heroes who could have stopped this. Wading into the fray, Batman dishes out more pain and punishment than ever before in his career, even turning the Joker into a quadriplegic. But no matter how much more powerful, merciless or cruel his foes have forced him to become, Batman not only finds a way to triumph over them all—Superman included—he finds a way to keep his “no killing” rule intact. Because as naive and unrealistic as it may be to think that people can still change or that it’s possible to overthrow a dictatorship with zero deaths, it is even more childish to think that we can act just like our enemies without suffering the consequences. While we may no longer believe in souls and the invisible lines which, if crossed, will destroy them, we do know that monstrous behavior is what makes a monster.

While giving into rage and savagery may feel good now, as Fingeroth says,

Sooner or later, realities will confront us that we, both personally and as a society, will have to deal with on our own, with no superhero there to swoop in to save the day.

We each have to be our own superhero.

So whether our powers take on the form of flight and invulnerability or charisma and creativity, I would much rather choose a world that rejects the notion that all must be corrupted or destroyed by them. Instead we must strive with what meager powers we have to rise above our heroes rather than sink below them.

Because a world where everybody in it deserves to burn… is hell.

The Wheel in the Sky is Real: How Karma Actually Works

In Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, the eponymous hero, who shares his name with that of the OG Gautama Buddha, asks his father for permission to leave society and join a religious cult of half-naked beggars who lead lives of asceticism in the woods.

Dad refuses. (What parent would say yes?)

In response, Siddhartha immediately goes on a stationary strike. Standing stock-still with his arms folded, refusing to speak, eat or drink. After a sleepless night filled with worry, his father relents. Siddhartha gets his way and goes on his journey.

Years later, Siddhartha becomes a single father and tries to gain the love of his son through patience and kindness, showing him the simple pleasures of life in a hut by the river, attempting to open his eyes to spiritual goodness.

In response, son berates dad for robbing him of the material joys of the city, steals his money, and runs away.

Searching the woods once more, this time not as a youth who has left his family but as an old man desperately looking for it, Siddhartha comes to experience what his father must have felt. The terrible anguish that comes with not knowing whether one’s child is alive or dead. The outpouring of love that isn’t even recognized, much less valued or requited, by the recipient. The despair of wishing the best for someone who deliberately chooses the worst.

Neither Siddhartha nor his son ever saw their fathers again.

This is Karma at its realest. Strip away the reincarnation story that says swatting a bug will turn you into an ant in your next life. Forget the “karma is a bitch” bumper sticker and New Age talk of energies and cosmic schadenfreude. And unpack the abstract ‘butterfly effect’ explanation that your actions will set off a chain of “what goes around comes around” that ends up getting you.

What you’re left with is something more psychological, concrete: karma is the causal effect of your behavior on your relationships. A hubris brought on by a lack of empathy. How you treat one person gives those who see it permission to treat you the same way. You will feel the emotions you inflict, oftentimes in profound and unpredictable ways.

At its most basic: Karma is consequences. Sellers are buyers. Servants become masters. Haters also have haters. And who we choose to be in our youth, we will encounter when we are old.

Which is a good thing, because it means Karma also presents a choice.

Recognizing your effect on others means you can always be a better version of yourself. Siddhartha does just that. Seeing the connections between all things, he becomes one with the other Siddhartha . He achieves—and molds his behavior to help others achieve—Buddha-hood.

All our actions are perpetuating cycles. If we want to escape the vicious ones, we need to set better cycles in motion. No permission needed.

When the Pricetag Says Free, the Cost is Your Freedom

Welcome — Our new product is not only highly addictive and endlessly amusing, it’s absolutely free!

That’s right, to start using this highly-coveted, award-winning, peer-backed and critically-acclaimed widget that everyone is already using today, just agree to the terms and conditions and sign over your freedoms. Including but not limited to:

Freedom from snark.

Freedom from too many cat videos.

Freedom from harassment.

Freedom from censorship.

Freedom from influence by advertisers and propaganda.

Freedom from accidentally having your selfies used by advertisers and propagandists.

Freedom from trauma-inducing high-definition imagery.

Freedom from algorithmic manipulation.

Freedom from addiction.

Freedom from paranoia that your friends don’t actually like you.

Freedom from FOMO.

Freedom from participating in exploitative capitalism.

Freedom from unsolicited dick pics.

Freedom from unsolicited sexbot solicitation.

Freedom from espionage (corporate, federal and international).

Freedom from SWAT invasion and other forms of accidental state violence and death by pranking.

Freedom from feeling like you are enough.

If at any time you wish to opt-out from our highly-coveted, award-winning, peer-backed and critically-acclaimed widget, just undergo this lengthy and obscure process for deleting your account and we will be happy to refund you every one of your freedoms at no additional charge.

Except for your free time. That you’re never getting back.

Thank you again for choosing us!

Cuffs & Cages

We think we love freedom so much that we’re willing to die for it.

On battlefields, in prison cells, at the picket lines.

At least, that’s the story we tell ourselves.

But when you strip the platitudes away and look beyond the cheap talk, how much do we actually value our freedom?

In a few generations, most Americans traded their rights to freely decide what to do with their farms for highly-regulated boxes and jobs of the city.

Yes, these jobs were more stable than the fickle crops and climate these industrialized workers left behind.

But with them came the restraints of rigid working hours, lesser pay and the whims of employers who frequently pitted labor against itself.

Workers lost the freedom to roam the open fields, spend time with their families and decide for themselves how they wanted to spend their time.

And because many of their jobs depended on bosses and union leaders who trade votes for influence or court sensitive advertisers many also gave up their political freedoms, too.

It took even less time for the French revolutionaries to switch from shouting “Liberty! Egality! Fraternity!” to “Long live Napoleon!”

Many ex-cons who swear they’ll never go back to prison deliberately make choices that will put them there again.

We should not look down on any of these people for the choices they make. If put in similar situations we will most likely make the same ones ourselves.

We may already have.

When you sign up for something that claims to be “free”, what it really means is that freedom is the price tag.

The cost is your free time. Freedom from advertisers. Freedom from being quantified, repackaged and sold.

As for when we aren’t consuming…

How many of us dreamed of becoming our own bosses, of becoming rich and famous from our own art, of making a lasting impact on our societies—only to trade these dreams in for a steady paycheck and free snacks?

It might not look like a cage because Forbes called it “a great place to work”.

We may not feel the cuffs because free food, good benefits and the promise of promotion or prestige numb us to their bite.

But if you find yourself wanting to sleep in rather than go to work.

If you catch yourself muttering, “I hate my job”, “I hate my life” or worse, “I hate myself” during the day.

If all you can do is laugh at the stupidity, mundanity and sheer monotony that augurs no end in sight…

Then what value have you really placed on your freedom?

Sure, there are plenty of reasons why the trade is worth it. When we give up some independence to join a community, for example, what we get is freedom from danger.

We might put up with the tyranny of ads in exchange for the freedoms afforded by a larger social network.

All good—so long as we knew what we were getting into.

So long as we understand the long-ranging, uncertain-but-not-entirely-unpredictable, consequences of where the paths in the road are leading, rather than blindly stumbling onward.

Until we find ourselves trapped and miserable.

In a place we can’t believe we freely chose.

10 REASONS WHY WAKING UP EARLY IS AWESOME

1. SUNRISES

2. NOT GETTING CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY LIFE

3. TIME TO DO SHIT WHEN YOU AREN’T TIRED

4. MORNING WORKOUT = A JUMP ON THE DAY, EVENING WORKOUT = ANOTHER CHORE

5. GET THE FIRST TO DO LIST ITEM DONE PRONTO

6. AIR IS FRESHER

7. PROCRASTINATING A LITTLE WON’T TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR WHOLE DAY

8. IT’S EASIER TO BE PRESENT WHEN THERE ARE FEWER DISTRACTIONS

9. GO ON A HIKE, BIKE RIDE, OR SIT BY A POOL—YOU CAN TAKE MINI VACATIONS

10. MORE TIME TO GET DRESSED/PUT ON YOUR FACE MEANS YOU’LL BE BETTER LOOKING

Tham Khai Meng

For as long as I've been in the industry, the name "Tham Khai Meng" has meant legend. Sure, rumors abounded. But if we're being honest, rumors (and first-hand experiences that confirmed them) surround many a great in every industry.

To get there you have to work longer hours than most of us already work. And while I'm not excusing his behavior by any means, those lonely nights trapped at the office with attractive juniors who idolize you might just drive a person to reconsider their romantic inclinations... You would do anything for your career and ambitions, which means suppressing your urges and desires, and we all know what happens after prolonged periods of that. Just search "nofap fail stories" on Reddit.

So this news was not entirely surprising.

But before you declare another victory for #metoo, remember The Hypocrisy Rule of Capitalism: Those who keep bringing in truckloads of cash for their companies get to keep their jobs no matter what they do, while those who fail to produce but are too public and too contract-protected to sack get the public humiliation ritual. Let's not forget that the decision to fire the poor sap was likely made by many a callow senior exec with HR folders that are as bad or worse, Otherwise they wouldn't be in the position to decide whose head is rolling.

You're only as good as your last ad, folks. And when the ad industry as a whole is suffering? Well, you better have a golden parachute they can't shoot down because as Peter Thiel says, "Every modern king is a scapegoat who's managed to delay his/her execution."

What more is there to say about the industry? Friends say that it's a sign the holding companies can't hold on. We're going to be replaced by smaller, scrappier firms. But what's to say they won't be replaced in turn by in-house companies? And with AI and automation in full swing, what's to say those sweatshop laborers won't get wiped out by college students who would've gone into sales or customer service watching Skill Shares and Masterclasses on ad-making and Photoshop? 

The pie is shrinking, and it sucks. But maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. After all, ad budgets like we see today are relatively recent. Like 60 years tops. It's not like Roman merchants were coming back from perilous trade voyages only to pour half their take into interrupting gladiatorial games and chariot races with mini-plays about anti-aging creams (Aphrodite-approved!).

Maybe this is just the market finally returning to the way it's historically been. And maybe it will finally free those of us who would rather be doing something else to go do that. Lord knows, the days when a senile David Ogilvy was allowed to wander the halls of his esteemed agency and pontificate to juniors before being whisked away by handlers (who would whisper to his audience to ignore his advice) are long gone. As are the cocaine-fueled, world-jaunting ones, it seems. Luckily, if the industry does decide there's no room for you long before you're ready to leave, your boss won't make your end as ignominious as they made Tham's.

He'll just lay you off along with the other non-stand-outs.

What it means to bless somebody

It just dawned on me recently that I had never really thought about the meaning of the word 'bless'. that when you are blessing another person, what you're really doing is the opposite of cursing.

It's not just something gods and angels do, but people can do it too. And the way you do it is to look at someone and do the opposite of what you'd do to harm them: Try to help them. NOT save them, mind you, just provide some comfort and letting them know they are loved.

Which is to say, have a conversation with them. REALLY listen to what they're afraid of or hurt by, and then instead of exploiting it or saying something that cuts them to the core, you say the thing to them that is both truthful and uplifting.

It's not easy. At first, you might come across creepy or suspicious because it may not be natural, but with some practice and effort. Example: two nights ago I was working late and took a Lyft home. The driver told me he was working to become a voiceover actor in video games. So we chatted about games and other stuff and then as I was getting ready to leave, I told him I hoped to play a game someday with characters in it that he voiced.

Nothing incredible. Maybe he’s already forgotten it. 

But what if he hasn’t? What if he went on to make something truly outstanding. And what if you I had played even a tiny part in making my next favorite game? 

Imagine if you got really good at it. You could become known as the guy who knows precisely just what to say in every situation. And that's a good guy to have around. People are genuinely appreciative of his existence. He is a hero who provides comfort in times of chaos.

Imagine if we did more of that for other people. If we blessed people who are sad, hurt or scared with hugs, really listened to and comforted our spouses and our elders, treated fast food attendants like they were human beings, etc. And if everybody did that then we would suffer a whole lot less because the world would literally be a blessed place.

Happy New Year and have a blessed 2018 everyone!

 -Rich

A Happy Starbucks Holidays or What I Did Before American New Years

Sometime this year, the word "elevated" attained its final form as the ultimate buzzword for mall retailers across America. Customers wanted it, brands wanted to be it.

And so, the call went out to create an animated video for the Starbucks for Life holiday game that would elevate the living snowflakes out of would-be participants. With our star illustrator out of town and only a few days around Thanksgiving to deliver, I stopped typing and started painting.

We work so much with computers these days that it was really nice to go analog again. I wasn't entirely sure I could do this in a professional context but, minus some tight deadlines and some back and forth over whether to show lids or not, everyone was pretty happy. Really looking forward to painting more in 2018 as it almost feels like a waste not to have this much (relatively) free fun.

All of which is to say, happy holidays everyone and don't forget to enjoy your gifts all year round.  

COMING SOON

I've been busy. 

Examples illustrating what I've been up to following shortly.

The Most Vulnerable Thing I've Ever Written

Recently published an article about my mother who died seven years ago.

It was painful to write. I kept putting it off until one day I felt I couldn't go out into the world until I finished it.

Finishing it has changed me. Friends I haven't spoken to in years have written me about it. People I barely knew have shared their stories.

This won't be my last article, but it's definitely a special one.

Read it here

How I turned 30

A nice little article I wrote for my friend Mike Reid's latest magazine, Good Read. 

Put my heart on the line quite a few times to get this right, so it's a thing I made of which I'm very proud. 

Basically, I wanted to figure out how I could make myself better, and I did it by asking a bunch of my closest friends what they thought.

Here are the results.