"What I learned this year" - Jonathan Woytek

Procrastination will cost you. As in, I waited too long to write my “what I learned this year” piece and others have said a lot of what I wanted to say. That risk and change and challenging myself were part of a year I’ll never forget. But it’s probably for the best, since I think they did a much better job than I would have.

So what did I learn in 2011? Well, I think I re-learned how to learn.

Coming into a new agency at the end of 2010, I thought I had something to prove. Prove that I had a few years on many people and was a seasoned vet of the ad game. So I said everything with conviction and faked my way through the things I didn’t know. This has certainly worked in the past.

But this approach failed. Failed because no one gave a shit about any of that. They cared about making stuff. Making great stuff, stuff that you can laugh at, be frightened by, play with, or cry over. So was I ready to be part of their culture? Or was I going to cling to a past that was more about meetings than making. And I say that with all due respect to some of the amazingly talented people I’ve worked with.

So I learned to learn a new way.

It started with learning to listen again. To turn off that voice in my head that’s figuring out how to best state my case and start listening to and thinking about what others are actually saying.

I learned to take criticism and accept it rather than defending my point of view when I knew I was wrong.

I learned to be mentored. To say, “these are the things I want to do” and trust that people were putting me in a position to succeed, not fail, even when it meant relinquishing control.

I learned that Shu Lai Zen is way better than Jonathan Woytek paranoia. Okay, so maybe I’m still working on learning this.

I learned to laugh at myself and enjoy being laughed at.

I learned that age and experience don’t mean a damn thing in this business. What matters is who’s willing to work the hardest to find an idea they really believe in.

And most importantly I learned to be truly grateful. Sit down and shed a tear grateful. Not just for the wonderful people I’ve had the honor to work with and the opportunities afforded me, but for the people in my life that put up with the unpredictable nature of this business. Grateful to a wife who sometimes feels like she’s a single parent but never complains, to a son that misses me but never holds it against me, and to an extended family that never lets me forget who I am or where I come from. To all of them, I offer my sincere thanks.

So there you have it. While I had every intention of making this clever and witty, even to the point of having a copywriter give me eleven funny things to say, I decided to play it straight. Because I also learned to quit being what I think people expect me to be, and just be me.

Happy holidays bitches.

JW

--------------------

Jonathan is a Creative Director at Pereira & O'Dell.