Ten Lessons

We’re almost through with another semester at Brigham Young University, and I just gave my design students the final project for their class. This is my twenty-second year as a part-time faculty member at BYU. Not long ago a student asked me about things he should know before getting into the field—what experience has taught me rather than what I’ve learned from school or books. Even though I’ve had some thoughts on that topic, I’ve never yet articulated them. In no particular order, here’s my first attempt:

1. People who are truly good at what they do make almost no effort to let everyone else know about it.

2. Marketing people are each at different levels. On the bottom are those who know how to use the tools (design software, good grammar, research resources). One step up are those who can identify and create quality (great concepts, good typography for designers, engaging copy, an insightful marketing plan). The rare people at the top possess a sense of appropriateness—an accurate gut feeling about what will work and what won’t. It’s the most valuable skill of all, and it’s possessed only by those with talent, native intelligence and experience.

3. Clients work with people they like even more than people who are competent.

4. There are more poor designers/good business people that succeed than there are good designers/poor business people that succeed.

5. Putting your craft as the most important thing is your life is a sure way to screw up your life.

6. There’s no danger in having to learn “too much.”

7. Spending for things that are good quality saves money in the long run. (This is especially true when it comes to branding and marketing.)

8. Clients who know what they’re doing come to an advertising agency for expertise. Clients who don’t know what they’re doing come to an advertising agency for the personal satisfaction of ordering around a group of not-as-smart-as-they-are people.

9. You’re wasting your time if you’re just taking orders from clients. Instead, you should be bringing something of thoughtfulness, beauty and insight into the world that—unless you had created it—would never have existed. If you do that, you’re increasing humanity’s value as well as solving your client’s problem, and your career and life will be satisfying.

10. Being successful doesn’t make you happy, but finding happiness makes you successful.

STEPHEN HALES