I’ve been talking recently about the vital role of creative agencies in re-inventing the world.
We’re in a time of global flux, when competing visions seek to decide what comes next.
The loudest, most powerful voices right now are doing it greedily, hatefully, destructively.
But authoritarianism is a few people with a lot of power — and history has shown time and again that they will lose in the end to the united force of many people with just a little power.
The victors will be ordinary good people who each play their small part, contributing to the whole.
Focusing on togetherness, looking after each other, doing the right thing, making things better.
I know it can sometimes seem helpless or hopeless. Like you should ignore the news and just focus on what’s on your desk today. Or even try to ‘just think positively’.
But as a creative entrepreneur, you have more power and influence than most other ordinary good people.
A larger voice in what the world could become after this time of flux.
The talent and ability to show that future to others and lead them there.
But the power we have is not to change the world, not directly anyway. So don’t feel that’s the goal you’re shooting for, as it makes it seem too hard to start trying.
Our power is to tend our gardens.
Making our little bit of the world better.
That’s your agency itself: the working lives of your team, the lives of their families, your local communities, the market your agency operates in, your clients, and your clients’ customers.
You can inspire and work with them to tend your garden together — Imagining the future you want to create, then planting and tending those seeds.
And by many of us doing that, the world becomes better.
And then we win.
So instead of just shutting out the world or ‘thinking positively’, we act positively within our sphere of influence.
Imagine how you want your little corner of the world to be after this time of flux.
Design your agency to be able to work on that, gather and inspire others, and lead people towards that future.
Design your agency to be a catalyst for good in your communities and your market.
Design your agency to redesign your small part of the world.
Your agency itself is going to be your most important creative work.
Tend your garden today.