It was around a year ago, when a friend of mine told me «Keep on and have patience. Your moment is yet to come». After one year, I was short listed for an award, i never thought of. It does not matter anymore.
What matters is that…
My heart still beats for what I do. Maybe even more. So, I guess I am still an “amateur”, meaning the passion I carry for what I do. Yes, there is a lot of pressure at times and I find myself in an ambitious mood quite often. Ambitious meaning that I want to become better, to learn new things. Hard at times. But you deal with it. Sometimes you fail. This is the point when you are angry with yourself. You learn to face it, to elaborate on it. It is the stage in my life to build, to create, to do.
… and I did.
( Images: Twenty Eleven by b-positive )
At that point, I realized that I have to deal with being treated as a junior in order to get the best out of the situation. Sometimes, it is a good strategy. It worked for a long time and it works even now. It was a decision to do it my way.
When I left the digital advertising agency, I was working for, there were a lot of young talented people out there, nearly killing for this job. It was not the right place for me to be, not THE place to flourish, not the place to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.
Let put it in the right light: The past three years I am working for publishing, media and communications. Different projects, different positions. What I am proud of that during the last year I worked with great agencies and great people.
Being freelance gave me the time to improve were I was and am weak, strengthen my skills, encourage my creativity. This until Summer. When you come to work with advertising agencies in Greece, you should keep in mind that you are not often paid on time. Could have some, lets say negative effects on your creativity. Some call it economic crisis, I call it management weaknesses.
September, lovely month in warm Athens, I resigned various agency jobs. Well, I did not really resign, but I did not put all the effort in them. Not all my passion, I used to. Actually, I had better things to do. One of them was TEDx, working for my personal project in order to inspire people, one cultural platform for environmental issues (those two are mentioned here) and the last one is working for a digital content startup.
Regarding my personal project, I am building on my vision and building a team. Focusing on every single member of my team, and on everything I thought as annoying and not-best decision by my former managers or directors, trying to listen to them and even take their criticism by heart. Trying to empower their strengths. In the end it is worth it.
The year was worth it, even if it was not easy, even if I am not making the shiny advertising career but a rather un-shiny entrepreneur-freelancer thing, but with purpose, with one dream: Changing the world.