Regrets from the last year.

It’s been 12 months since I announced I was leaving a great Creative Director job. Here’s what I learned.

If you’ve read my blog then you know the story. I had my dream job. I worked my dream job. I loved my dream job. I dreamed bigger and left my dream job. We don’t need to go into those details. They are well documented here.

But in the 12 months since I announced I was leaving and the six months since I started my own business, a lot has happened and I continue to learn and reflect upon it all. Before I get into my regrets — and there are some — here are few of the takeaways from bootstrapping a new strategy and marketing firm.

Nothing is easy. And that’s a good thing. When I was a at my previous position, I coined the slogan “We don’t do easy” for the agency. It was a good way to sum up the philosophy of a shop that regularly took on (and crushed) the hardest work possible. But today I have come to the somewhat stunning relaization that, when it comes to the work that firms like ours do, nothing is ever easy. That’s because clients today largely have tools, employees and skills to do the everyday work. The only thing left for free agents and agencies like us to do is the work that clients cannot or will not do themselves.