Page 109 - Sorry, We're Not Hiring Any Visionaries Today

CHAPTER 13
Some of our greatest strengths also become our biggest weakness. Take, for example, someone who’s an extremely hard worker. They have an incredible work ethic. But unfortunately, they wind up destroying their mental well- being, health and relationships if they work constantly.
When I first came to Canada from Romania, I was put into ESL. When splitting people into math groups, they divided them into balloons and kites. I was put into the balloon group, and I soon realized they were not as intelligent in math as the kite group. I wanted the teacher to know I wasn’t in the balloon group. My sister was super brainy and wound up in the newspaper for having a mark in math higher than 100%. My dad, an Eastern European man, was very fo- cused on mathematics. He was an engineer. It was super important for him for me to excel in school. Subconsciously, now looking back as an older, wiser individual, that had a big drive for me. I had a chip on my shoulder and have carried this through my entire working life.
With this in mind, when it came to advertising, I only wanted to work at what I thought was the best agency possible — Sid Lee. And it was really fucking hard to get in there. I would send them emails and wait to get a response.
I would email basically anyone I could at the company. Then, I decided to try something else. I focused on one individual, which, in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have done. He was the managing partner of the Toronto office, and I just emailed him constantly — once a week. I constantly shared new tidbits of info. My approach could have been more methodical and thoughtful. This approach was like, fuck it, I’m gonna bang on the motherfucking door until they answer and let me in.
I felt I was not stopping; I was just going to go and keep going until they blocked me or invited me in for an interview. Eventually, the managing partner told me, “Please stop messaging me. I will put you in touch with another partner, and maybe he’ll contact you.”
This new person was like a rock star. He was 27 and already a managing partner. He was also quite crazy and possessed a photographic memory. He
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