These 17 cents are to blame for all the times I would wake up at 3 AM with a rush of inspiration thinking I finally had “cracked it”.

IFYKYK. 

You see, when I was starting out and deciding on a path, I stumbled on an industry website. I recall it vividly. The homepage featured an aluminum can just like this one with some beautifully persuasive copy. It went something along the lines of “we take this $0.17 and turn it into a dollar”. The sub-copy read about a career in advertising and how through story, meaning and association you could create value for both businesses and people. 

I was sold. 

I didn’t know it back then but those 17 cents of aluminum would cause countless restless nights, heartbreak for ideas that had to die and agony for pitches that were lost. 

And yet, after all these years, I still love it.