Any creative job entails dealing with deadlines, deadlines and more deadlines. But a creative resource doesn't wake-up on the right side of the bed every single day. This story that I am about to narrate unfolded on one such unproductive day, maybe because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
I was working with a mainstream Radio Station and my job involved making (audio) ads for various Clients that advertised on our Radio. On a very unlucky morning, I walked into office, with 19 ad requests sitting on my desk. Yes, 19 different Clients, 19 different concepts, 19 different ads and the clock screamed that it was still 11 in the morning. As luck would have it, that wasn't the end of my worries. By lunch, 27 ad requests piled up on my desk.
A Sales guy, put on his best aggressive voice and began the battle of "who-gets-the-delivery-first".
So here I was, trying to make 27 different ads, while 11 Sales guys were getting into verbal fist-fights around my desk. Like any mere mortal would, I panicked.And panicked some more owing to my penchant for perfection, because I was aware that I would piss off more than one Client that day.
Like every disaster, has a Disaster Management module attached to it, my response to an office difficulty was already defined. First, I got onto a long bitching conversation with the best-friend on phone, then I called up my "office-advisor" for gyaan on office policies. Somewhere in between both these phone-calls, I broke into tears. Then I called my Boss who was based out of Mumbai and complained that the Sales team is being mean to me. Soon after which, I started arguing with a Radio Jockey because he was using the Studio, when I needed to make 27 ads!
None of this helped, but the pile of ads on my desk looked even more difficult, thanks to the loss of time. I had four hours left , in comparision to my 9 working hours and all the work in the world to finish! I walked into the studio, equipped with 27 scripts and finally got the ad-making rolling. After what appeared to be another lifetime and at least a zillion voice-overs, I completed all of the ads and mailed them across to the Clients.
The crisis passed and I was in the "clean-slate" mode again. Or maybe not!
I came back to work the next day only to discover that all of the 27 ads have been rejected and I had to begin all over again.
It was as if the traces of an entire work-day were wiped out. I stared at the stinker mails that sat pretty in my inbox. I began writing back, with a sole-intention of pissing off a few Clients at the other end.
Because, when you have an impossibly difficult creative job, and dont piss people off, then they'd end up making you miserable. It is as simple as that.
