Defacing Walls

It was never the lovers whose names
were carved as scars onto my heart.

It’s the friends,
The colleagues,
The mentors,
It’s the people I loved,
In a way that the world
Sees as a pale second to romantic love,
Who keep carving their names afresh
On the walls of my mind,
Each time they’re scrubbed clean.

Be Brave.

“So, I was thinking we target this to young college students,” beamed the marketing manager. She had the air of one who had discovered the secret to eternal youth instead of marketing to it.

“Your product is a premium offering, right?” as always I was trying to land softer punches, so they seemed friendly rather than an invitation to spar, “So college students won’t be able to afford it, wouldn’t it make sense to target a slightly older audience with more spending power?”

“I thought about it actually,” her lips turned down in a faux considering manner, “But the thing is, these college students will grow up to be our customers so we can catch them early!”

I suppressed an eye roll, for once I was on the business side of the brand, what I wanted to say was “Do you have that much money to keep yourself afloat and watch your audience grow up and then spend on your brand?” What I said was, “Oh, okay.”

In my head, my tiny self went on a tirade about how I ought to push back to which I could only say, “I shall pick my battles.”

Corporate life is this tussle for me – between sense and utter nonsense. With nonsense winning on the back of silences and shrugs and a lot of “Can’t help it”s.

In another meeting we had a client come in who waxed eloquent about how they wanted to do a radio show for college students on sexual health and education. Noble cause. But did the client just once, pause, and ask himself, “Do college students listen to radio broadcasts?” “Will they be interested in an educational one at that?” More importantly, as marketers with brains could we not shine a spotlight on this no-grounds assumption. I looked at my bosses who were nodding along and discussing with what can only be termed coked-up enthusiasm how we could execute this. I eventually tabled those doubts to the client who did not have the answers, and didn’t like those questions. But I’d decided this was battle I’d fight.

At the end of the meeting, there was only one thought in my head, “Why don’t people ask why?” Nietzche had used the phrase, “repeated suicide of reason”. I’d like to give that phrase to corporate life in general. My previous boss called it an ‘Action Bias’, when a job rolls in, no one stops to define the problem, everyone jumps to start working on it. No one stops to ask why are we doing this? What do we aim to achieve from this? What bigger role is it fulfilling? What problem is it solving?

Our societies are not welcoming of questions. They do not like “Why” and as children shushed, we grow up to be adults who also learn to tranquilize our questions in order to live our days in some lobotomized version of peace. But even when I shush my mind, my heart gulps it down as anger that keeps boiling beneath. Can’t let it in, can’t let it out.

“This is what we have to do.”

Why do we have to do it?

“This is how it’s always been done.”

Why does it still have to be that way?

“I also tried, but what to do?”

Try again! Don’t dumb yourself down, don’t tell me to do it too because you did it.

This has turned into a rant. I am painting my frustration here. Especially because I had the good fortune of being with a mentor who taught me to slow the hell down. He told me that when a new opportunity presents itself, take a breath and define the problem itself, then think about what would solve it, once that’s done, go crazy on execution. But the whole cliche of 98% of time ought to be spent understanding the question, it’s true. I don’t see that happening in companies at the moment. When I was on the advertising side of it, I would wonder why my marketing counterparts – my clients – were such a mess. Now that I’m on their side, I see why. We just want to create ‘buzz’, somehow, anyhow.

My mentor taught me one thing of incredible value. Two simple words I cherish the most, two words that act as a guiding light when I’m unsure about reactions even when I’m sure about my beliefs. He told me: Be Brave. And that’s what I intend to be.