In my home country, there was this small agency that was the talk of the town. The agency built its reputation doing outstanding creative work for their main client, which was Chile’s largest newspaper and comprised 23 different products and consumer programs. That’s where I landed one of my first creative jobs—working on that desirable newspaper account!

Three partners owned the agency. The one who owned the largest share was also one of the country’s top marketing gurus—and still is to this day.  He was a very busy man, always on high demand.  He was the one who I didn’t interview with or never met…until my first day on the job.

All of a sudden, he stormed into my work area and introduced himself.  He told me how I was going to be working on a really fast-paced piece of business; he told me how he was sure I’ll be contributing outstanding thinking and solutions that will add to the agency’s creative reputation; he told me that, although he didn’t spend many hours in the building on a given month, he was just one block away in a different facility where I could always count on finding his door open for me. Upon leaving he just wanted to add one more thing…
 
He said: “If you ever run into a problem…”—and I could hear what was coming next; “Remember my door is always open,” or something like that, right? But, instead, he said, “If you ever run into a problem…SOLVE IT!”

This is one of the simplest and greatest lessons I’ve found to be very useful in life because it is so true that within every problem, one should search for its solution.

Francisco Letelier | VP Creative