It’s been one of those years. One of those where everything you do does not quite seem to come off the way you expected it to. Akin to the global recession, it’s been a little bit of an “individual recession” as well. The kind of year that you’d just like to see the end of, quickly.
But yesterday night, I felt a lot, lot more optimistic. Thank you Jerry Maguire. In many ways, this movie tells you how to deal with recession, both personal and professional. Think about it, here’s a guy who has to leave his job on a whim, he goes from being a professional superstar to have to scrounge for pennies, his hot girlfriend of years leaves him and he’s left with just one client and even that client’s not really hot property.
The same situation can apply to a lot of advertising agencies as well (in fact, any business). From billion dollar targets, companies are down to the millions and the lakhs, a lot of our clients are asking to cut down spends/leave us (girlfriends leaving) and the clients we are left with too don’t feel like they’re top draw anymore.
That’s where Jerry Maguire’s lessons kick in. I’m going to put some of them out here, the ones that made perfect sense to me.
1. Help me help you – Something Jerry said to Rod Tidwell (his client). In times of recession, I guess that’s the language a lot of our clients may understand. Sure, they’ll want to save on marketing spends but partnering them through tough times will help us feel the sunshine when it comes. Something Jerry Maguire did.
2. If this (points to the heart) is empty, this (points to the head) does not matter: Same point, I guess but just more emphatic. Be sensitive to your client’s issues as well. They’ll respect you more for it than for your anxiety.
3. Hey... I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success: Of course we don’t have all the answers but its important for our clients to know, especially in these tough times, that it’s their interests that matter to us. We don’t have a magic wand but we do have all the bloody effort that’s there in the world
4. That’s how you become great man, hang your balls out there: Has always worked (Bill Gates, Ambanis, Mittals, …) and probably does even more when you’re fighting from the down. Because from there, almost every second option looks like a risk. Jerry said so, again.
5. Bet on me dude, like I bet on you: Good times, you ask for the money; hard times, you ask for the trust. It works both ways, I guess.
6. That’s not a dress, that’s an Audrey Hepburn movie AND You…complete me: Nothing about clients and recession but this should get you a smile from women on any given day
Life seems such a lot simpler once you’ve seen a Jerry Maguire. May be there is stuff to learn for some and may be there is not but at the end of the day, it’s one helluva of a god damn great movie. Like the movie says “It had me at hello”
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