Three-Light Candle

Recently, an old book on 'Wake Up the Creative Genius in You' just popped out at home. Glancing through it triggered my memory on why I bought it and a few other books on creativity. I was appointed the Creative Champion during one of my former employments. To inspire staffs, once we even had a guest speaker in Balada Nusantara interior design. That was fun. Yeah, who said each candle should only have one light?:)

Yesterday I updated my resume. Guess what, my current job doesn't sound so pathetic after all. Give it another 6 months, it will be a success story like the rest, insyaallah. I stated my management style as 'inculcate a working culture focusing on creativity, innovation and results, rather than tasks and processes.' Oh, I actually included that sentence in my KPI, so totally non-gomen. LOL!

And yesterday too, a great job offer turned up on the PROs and writers' mailing list. A Singaporean based PR agency is looking for a pioneer team to start its operation in KL. There is a vacancy for an Associate Director, someone with 10 years of experience who could run the office. Yeah, I could go to any PR agency. The demand for a senior consultant is always higher than the supply. But a new one, especially one who promises sales commission on projects worked on... that's like doing your own business, minus the financial risk. Being new also mean being versatile, the company couldn't just insist on taking solid PR work. It needs to accommodate advertising, media buy, printing and design related jobs and outsource them. This would give staffs the chance to be as creative and recommend programs as widely as they like.

The only obstacle I see is there will be a lot of running around with the new office and all, I definitely would have to pick up on driving. Mr Designer said not to worry about that, he'll teach me, hehe... He said the job is perfect for me. I should apply, and I shall. Contacts with a pool of multi-purpose, low priced suppliers will be useful. This is where I think he and his business partner would be useful. Yesterday afternoon, his business partner also introduced their other partner to me, someone who specialise in speaking events / training. I asked him to develop a Corporate Social Responsibility proposal. He asked me a lot of questions about my company and the industry. It got me thinking and reminded me on what's important. The negativity around me for the last 9 months has diluted my focus.

Actually, this week too, I'd called a few suppliers to propose a 6-month advertising plans as we still have not touched 90 percent of our Advertising and Promotion budget. Yeah, you're talking about hitting the last quarter and hardly spending. It has been so difficult to get any proposal approved. Imagine how frustrating it is for me and my team. Not to mention, my re-branding proposal was put a stop to at the very last step due to a new mandate from the Ministry. When we submitted a proposal for a Hari Raya advertisement with a free upgrade from black & white to colour, 'No 1' made no decision, as clear cut as it might seem. The supplier wanted to absorb RM10k as a Raya gift, and he had to ponder on that?:(

All in all, I have to say that my encounter with Mr Designer has opened up my eyes to something. Yeah, running your own business is much more interesting and rewarding. Though they are struggling now, in a year perhaps, they can sail smoothly. I think being their freelance copywriter will be a good start for me. Their business being small and versatile means we can work with clients in an unstructured manner, without bosses to report to. That would really inspire creativty. When I watched him working on my company's designs till the wee hour of the morning and gave feedback, he said I actually have the knack for it. I do have an idea on the smart usage of colours, maintaining a clean layout, churning out creative concept, etc. I kind of enjoyed it too :)