yes sir.

i'm really down on intelligence right now. what i mean is that i'm beginning to think that being smart doesn't count for shit. in fact, i'm not so sure being above average is really better than being average when it comes to brain power. after all when you're smarter than the people around you, all you think about is how everything that people are doing sucks.

take my job for example. a couple months ago, we designed ads on a pretty tight budget using stock photography that really did set us apart from most of our competition in the backward world of online gaming (think dot coms at their heyday).

now, one month into launch, the financier decides that everything is wrong with the ad.

his reasoning: don't re-invent the wheel.

yes, instead of trying to be different than all your competitors, why not just be the same? just imitate what all your competitors are doing and grab some market share.

if that isn't the pearl of wisdom that has advanced human civilization over the last 2000 years, i don't know what is.

the shocking thing is that all the other people in the room simply nodded their head as if the ceiling had opened up and light from heaven was shining down upon them.

two months ago, everyone in this room loved this ad (i myself thought it was decent but not great). here are the two main excuses that people put forth as to why we were unable to foretell the problems with our campaign.

- sometimes, you need to see it on paper. hmm. well let's see; each of you was sent the proof and could've printed it out. we also got a match print done so that we could see exactly what it would look like.
- we had to see how it would look next to other company's ads. oh, this one is my favorite. wow, is this because it would've been so difficult to actually open one of the magazines and see how other ads compared to ours? or is it because the idea of evaluating the competition prior to developing a campaign was just too abstruse?

did i mention the man behind this project is probably worth $100 million and has a business that he nets close to $2 million a month?

obviously smarts don't help you get rich.