71 Business Cards
This is the number of cardboard collectibles I gathered before landing my very first full-time job in advertising. You see, I recently cleaned out my desk drawer and, to my amusement, discovered the rubber-banded stack of b-cards I had compiled over the course of my final three years in college and first year after earning my degree. The number isn’t anything remarkable. I’m sure there are numerous individuals who’ve secured their first jobs with far more and far fewer geometric figures of card stock. What makes me chuckle is the composition of this make-shift Rolodex.
The stack starts off well, topped with a trio of callings cards from the Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Advertising Age’s Agency of the Decade. And these are followed by some very well-known agencies in their own right - Energy BBDO, DDB, Cramer-Krasselt, and Y&R. Then comes my mentors, the agencies from which I learned the meaning of advertising: Highland Group, Hanon McKendry, Extra Credit Projects, Fairly Painless, Full Circle, Hunsberger-Stap and Auxiliary. I am deeply indebted to the talented creatives at these shops, for my little bit of success is a direct result of them telling me my work was bad and that I should do more…in a nurturing and encouraging way.
But this is where things start to get interesting. There’s Colortech Graphics, a printing company. Spartan Stores, a food distributor. Izzy Design, a furniture manufacturer. Quail Ridge, a golf course. Jampro, a Jamaican promotions and investment company. And the list goes on - Flagstar Bank, Wells Fargo Financial, Aerotek, Arrow Uniform, Aflac, John Ball Zoo, Federated Insurance, Harold Zeigler Automotive Group, Kohler, UPS, X-rite and Blesco. Almost every single one of these cards are from an attempt to get a job. Notice I said “attempt.”
It is now, looking back, that I realize how very easily I could have become a marketing rep for a grocery chain, or a bank teller, or an insurance salesman, or a car salesman, or a delivery truck driver. What were once certain disappointments over a failed attempts to find work are now the biggest sighs of relief I’ve ever exhaled. If I knew everyone would believe my intentions to be honorable and sincere, I’d most certainly contact each and every individual in my deck of business cards and thank them from the bottom of my heart for not hiring me. For allowing me to find the path that was meant for me all along. But I suppose the thanks would be misplaced. I believe I owe a nod to God for instilling the fortitude in me to have faith that something better was waiting to be uncovered.
So, thanks G. I look forward to seeing what’s next.
