A Lesson Too Late

Linds Redding passed away a short time ago from esophageal cancer at the age of 52. I never knew of him until I stumbled across his writing today. He was a star of the advertising industry, but for the last 6 months of his life, he was forced to pull away from the meat grinder of his creative agency to deal with his illness.

And in that time, he found clarity.

One of the last posts on Lind’s blog was entitled, A Short Lesson in Perspective (http://www.lindsredding.com/2012/03/11/a-overdue-lesson-in-perspective/). Here, he writes of his own life experience, and the insane pressures of his work that was endured because he believe it was a noble cause, but in the end was an empty shell, providing little value of any kind expect to those who were already wealthy.

His piece is a shocking echo of my last blog post (Advice to a Graduating College Student), where I discussed the potential for losing your identity as you move into the work force and you find yourself on the insane ride motivated only by profit.

Here is an excerpt from Linds’s blog post:

It turns out I didn’t actually like my old life nearly as much as I thought I did. I know this now because I occasionally catch up with my old colleagues and work-mates. They fall over each other to enthusiastically show me the latest project they’re working on. Ask my opinion. Proudly show off their technical prowess (which is not inconsiderable.) I find myself glazing over but politely listen as they brag about who’s had the least sleep and the most takeaway food. “I haven’t seen my wife since January, I can’t feel my legs any more and I think I have scurvy but another three weeks and we’ll be done. It’s got to be done by then. The client’s going on holiday. What do you think?”

What do I think?

I think you’re all fucking mad. Deranged. So disengaged from reality it’s not even funny. It’s a fucking TV commercial. Nobody gives a shit.

This has come as quite a shock I can tell you. I think, I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole thing was a bit of a con. A scam. An elaborate hoax.

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As long as money is the motivating force behind nearly every human activity, we will never reach our full potential. Imagine a world with no money, where we all share everything of what we make – and we are all dedicated to making the best of whatever is required. We would no longer need to try to convince people to buy inferior products, or create false claims to differentiate between competitive products.

There is much more in Linds’s post that is well worth the time to read. Do it now!