Greed on Wall Street = Greed on Madison Ave

Image from Kagan McLeod from Portfolio.Com

Greed and Doom on Wall Street - National Business News - Portfolio.com. 
This quote from one of the unnamed interviewees caught my attention.  And it somehow got stuck in my head:

There’s a lot of big ego involved in my business; it’s about feeling smart. There’s an old cliché: Never confuse brains with a bull market. But it’s hard not to flagellate yourself when things unravel. Everyone’s very humbled.

Sounds like advertising to me.  And marketing.

When something goes really well, a brand manager or a marketing director comes to the fore and claims all the glory.  Or a creative director - or a suit - or a media planner stands up and claims that "it was all my idea, you know".

The only thing that's different is that I don't think there is such as thing as "self-flagellation" in the industry.  There's the blame-game, of course (and I guess that's pretty much the same in any industry - finance and investments included).  The brand and marketing people point to the agency.  The creative director and the team talk back and say, "The brief was bad!"  The suit says, "The creative team was prima donnas!"  And the media planner says, "There was not enough budget" - which is of course, the clients' fault.

Humbled?  I rarely see humbled ad or marketing professionals - although I do think that there is room for humility.  In fact, I think there is a need for humility in the advertising and marketing world.

Humility: I actually think it pays. 

And I honestly believe that "egonomics" - and the belief in "Brand You" - doesn't necessarily mean raising one's profile to rival that of celebrities.  Just because one talks a lot or travels a lot or has this posh office doesn't mean one is smart.  And gifted.  And blessed.

Humility.

Hmmm.