Advice for Young People
Sitting here in my favorite chair in the den as the clock chimes ten; the cats have finally worn each other out from the evening’s wrestling. Reading a biography of an eccentric Englishman and savoring the cool breeze drifting through the window, and for some reason I find myself remembering a radio interview I heard many years ago while driving home one day in Santa Fe in my beloved canary-yellow ’72 Volvo sedan.
The interviewee was a famous wealthy businessman — I can’t remember who it was — who had just written an autobiography. I remember that he was funny, self-deprecating, and possessed of many fine and funny anecdotes.
The interviewer wrapped up by asking him if he had any advice for young people.
“Yes I do,” he replied. “Develop your eccentricities early. If you wait until you’re older, people will think you’re just going crazy.”
I have never forgotten that advice.
Categorised as: Podblogging
Comments are disabled on this post
So this morning, someone on one of the LinkedIn forums I’m on asked people to contribute the most inspirational quote that they had ever offered or been offered. This one, of course, immediately sprang to mind. So for the first time in my life, I looked up who said it. And it turned out to be David Ogilvy, the advertising wizard.
Now, I’ve heard of the name of course but I’ve never read anything by or about him. From a cursory glance, however, I think it’s pretty obvious that my brain operates on something of an Ogilvian frequency with regard to how communication does and doesn’t work. I think I’ll have to read Ogilvy on Advertising. I get the feeling it’s going to end up in my permanent collection, right next to The Ad Contrarian.
And for the record, the actual quote is: