My Insight Resume

1. What is the first insight you remember?

At the age of thirteen, I learnt with the hard way that a premature self satisfaction is the start of annihilation when my throne as the number one student was been overtakes by my classmate. Since kindergarten I always been a bright child and I constantly finished the school year as the top dog, at that moment no one could ever touch me, not even close. Being in that circumstance where everything was so easy to accomplish and also the lack of competitiveness at that time, made me had this syndrome of cockiness. I started to take my cleverness for granted, I let down my guard, I took my eyes away from the ball, and it made me pay, BIG TIME! I still find it interesting that my first memorable insight was inspired by clumsiness and was all about talent preservation. Perfect preparation for the advertising business.

2. What is your best insight?

Realizing that even though my heart wanted me to become a professional basketball player, my size and talent were conclusive evidence that I would never make the grade. A deficiency in something you truly love is hard for many people to swallow (just watch the Idol audition for the proof). My insight was really about knowing your limit and accepting the truth.

3. What made it great?

This insight saved me a lifetime of frustration. It made me realize early on that there were limits in life, and helped me accept the notion that no matter how eager you want something, you can’t do it on hearts and wishes alone. You need some tools to make it happen and most of the time the tools are essential. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reach for the stars, you just need to know what it takes to get there and have an objective analysis whether you have enough of “IT.”

4. What was the problem it solved?

It taught me to be realistic at a young age and detoured me away from a potential life of rejection.

5. Can you connect the dots that led to this insight?

Despite being a good passer with a pretty good field goal presentation (I was a point guard), when I looked around and compared myself to other players my age at some regional championship, I began to realize my shortcomings. This may have been my first encounter into research, analysis, and insight. To reach the top at any field, you simply have to be a cut above the next guy, not a cut below. And that goes for the next guy and the next guy as you climb up the chain. You have to be constantly at least a cut above. Later on when I entered the advertising business, that insight becomes the filter for my ad. The work always had to be a cut above what everyone else was expecting.

6. What is your second best insight?

Realizing that there was something else I wasn’t cut out for. After high school I went to the university majoring visual communication design, graduated with good grade and I could say I had a decent talent to get me through the job as a graphic designer for 2 years. But again, somewhere along the way reality bites me and an epiphany came to me: I knew I would never be great at it.

7. How would you characterize your ideas?

I always have been passionate about the ideas that very strip to the bone simple & easy to understand yet so spectacular in impact. I love when people could see the ideas and relate to it.

8. What is your creative signature?

Advertising that speaks to your heart as well as your head. Advertising that enlightening and at the same time evoke some particular emotion inside you, whether it’s touchy or funny or empathy or even hatred. I always believe that a great ad is something that either can make you cry yourself out or make you laugh your ass off, because in a world of parity products and services, advertising that packs an emotional thwack definitely gives you a big edge.

9. Who are insightful people you admire?

Neil French for his classy act and bona fide works he brought to the advertising business. Jim Aitchison for his valuable books that gave me more knowledge about the landscape of the advertising world than 4 years of academic bullshit I got from my college years. Alex Ferguson for teaching the value of “no one individual is greater than the team.” Ole Gunnar Solksjaer for showing is not the quantity that matters, it’s the quality. Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali and Eric Cantona for enlightening me about the necessity of an attitude. Denzel Washington for never failing to put a heart behind his every work and Steve Job for always knowing what the people want and for having the talent and insights to deliver it.

10. Who are your creative mentors or role models?

So far in my short career in the advertising business, I once met a great mentor: my first real creative director, Chamim Nurwulanto. He is the been there done that seen it all guy, from a paste up artist to the award winning creative director on one of the most competitive agency in Indonesia, who happened to be a great teacher. He showed me the true evidence of a passion.

11. When all else fails, to whom or what do you turn for inspiration?

Inspiration is already there in the universe, waiting patiently for someone with sharp observation and sensitive heart to snap it, sometime but rarely it struck you out of nowhere just like a direct message from God. In a simple way to explains, inspiration comes in many forms. For me, in the middle of watching a movie or hearing a song, some particular sentence that meets the eye when I read a book, or that silence time I had when I go to the bathroom to unload my excess baggage works too. But the best inspiration is just talking to people. Sometimes one word dropped into a conversation can get ideas flowing like a great flood.

12. What is your greatest fear?

Many things I guess, height, ghost, war, but if you mean something that related to the advertising field I have to say my greatest fear is that advertising will never again be quite so much fun as it once was before the demand for efficiency displaced the charming, nonchalant innocent quality of the work. An industry where all the people in it get so frustrated because everything has been done and start to lose the patience that needed to be able to come out with high quality works, and then they just become a lousy copycat.

13. Describe your ideal client?

Someone who treats you as a partner, who’s reasonable, sympathetic, intuitive, empowered to make the big decisions and NOT AFRAID to make them. Mostly, it’s someone who creates the environment in which great work can flourish, someone who knows when is the perfect time to interfere or to just back off.

14. How do you stay in creative shape?

I always believe in practice makes perfect saying, and because I’m a copywriter so I prefer writing. All kinds of it: letters, speeches, ads, films, you name it. Writing is just another way of thinking. The more you think, the more ideas you’ll generate and therefore, the more you’ll create. Writing is like shooting the free throw. The more you do it, the more easy and accurate it will be. Let it go and even Michael Jordan will slowly turns to Shaq.

15. Define luck.

It’s what happens when the preparation meets opportunity. I’ve always believed that you make your own luck.