On the future of advertising agencies

A comment I posted this morning on Gotham Gal's blog post: A reality check.
That was before breakfast, so some words might have been eaten on the way ;)

There are many ways to break the rules, and it's not always about coming up with NEW processes or NEW thinking. Her dream may not sound unique to you or revolutionary, but she - as a unique person with her unique take on the world - may bring a unique perspective. A great agency is not just about cool and new this and new that but is a lot about reliable people committed to providing their clients with the best collaborating experience and value.
Most often companies that are "getting killed" are the ones (in which partners killed each others first and/or) who forgot their purpose and who they're doing it for, focusing too much on the what and the push of matter vs. adapting to what the market wants. Think about Nokia going from toilet paper and rain boots manifacturer to holistic provider of mobile experience.
Also, to resonate on the restaurant observation, why do we as a customer pick this restaurant over another one? Most important, why do we go back?
Or, why do people buy old school, vintage clothes?
Often time, we - especially in the media/tech industry - tend to obsess with the latest, newest tech or buzz word, when in fact successful things or transactions are rarely 'new school'. No reason to be jadded though ;)
Maybe that woman via her boutique agency will be able to provide that missing piece for her clients in a way that no other agency can... For every client, there's an agency out there... ;)
"To you I am nothing more
than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world. . ."
The Little Prince, Saint Exupery

Elizabeth Gilbert, humility and genius

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Prey, Love, inspires us about to bring back sanity into the creative process, by redefining the concept of genius. In doing so, she allows us to share the daunting anguish she felt after her enormous success for potentially not being able to live up to it, and how she freed herself from this vertigo. I can certainly relate to that feeling, even outside of creative circumstances, especially after making it successfully to the US. You would think staring at any kind of oneself's achievements would make oneself proud, but in turn it opens that new door to anxiety when it comes to projecting 'what's next?'. Elizabeth helps us looking at it from a humble perpective. We are not solely responsible for our spikes of genius, neither are we for when genius does not show up. Either way, we have to show up for work (and make sure we have enough oil with us - cf. Parable about the Ten Maidens).

Reasons not to date a writer...

Fitzgerald drew largely upon his wife's intense and flamboyant personality in his writings, at times quoting direct segments of her personal diaries in his work. Zelda made mention of this in a 1922 mock review in the New York Tribune, saying that "[i]t seems to me that on one page I recognized a portion of an old diary of mine which mysteriously disappeared shortly after my marriage, and also scraps of letters which, though considerably edited, sound to me vaguely familiar. In fact, Mr. Fitzgerald—I believe that is how he spells his name—seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home" (Zelda Fitzgerald: The Collected Writings, 388).

(Source: Wikipedia)

I'm sure there are people out there who would enjoy the idea of reading about their thoughts and dating interactions in their fellow writer's masterpiece.

I don't apply the "creative common" philosophy for this area of my life. I wonder if it's a generational thing or just that I'm being selfish.

Let's say that for now I believe that a writer who has enough distance to write about the ones who love him/her, well has too much distance to actually love someone, and that someone is delegated to a muse role.
I'm sure there are exceptional beings who manage to transcend the state of being a writer (these are human beings who write vs. writers who are).

To one of these exceptions, I say:
I am to be your muse, amuse you and abuse you...