It's been a busy week settling down in Delhi(actually Gurgaon)! One needs planning skills of a different kind getting a new home started...Finally this evening I am connected to the web again thanks to Airtel broadband.
Trying to catch up with the world having missed much of the debate and action around Cannes, the run-up to the budget and Wimbledon!!
While I chug back into the blogosphere, read a nice post recommended by blog-buddy Neil Perkin on Creative Paralysis by Dave Trott. I love collecting stories like this in my head. Here it is...
When Bill Shankly(one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers)managed Liverpool he had a very gifted young striker playing for him. This young star worked hard, trained hard, and studied the game.
In one particular high-pressure match he found himself with the ball at his feet and only the goalkeeper to beat.
He thought about everything he’d learned.
Should he wrong-foot the keeper and go round him?
Should he bend the ball around the keeper into the top corner?
Should he try a power shot and hope the keeper can’t hold it?
Should he hold up the ball so he could lay it off to someone in a better position?
While he hesitated a defender took the ball off him and booted it upfield to the other end of the pitch.
When the young striker eventually came off the pitch, Shankly asked him what had happened.
The striker said he’d been trying to pick his best option.
Shankley said, “Look son, if you ever find yourself with the ball at your feet and just the goalie to beat, stick it in the net and we’ll discuss all your options afterwards.”
I often think advertising is like that.
We’ve got young copywriters and art director getting confused by concentrating on complicated things that aren’t their job.
So they can’t do the simple job they should be doing.
Instead they spend all their time thinking about brand theory, new media, cultural memes, and social latency.
Now maybe brand theory and the all rest has some relevance for planners.
But that’s their role in the team, not ours.
It’s our job to stick the ball in the net.
And that’s simple, or it’s nothing.
Now, I don't follow football at all and I have recently left advertising, but loved this story for it's simple and powerful lesson...
Looking forward to Monday and the start of a new and exciting journey! Must rummage through my notes for some other post ideas.
Neo's Ben 10 overlooks our packed samaan:-)
And while I hardly drove my old war-horse Lancer, felt nostalgic about selling it off:-( I was particularly fond of its blue-green-silver colour and the front grille. I don't know why I am sharing it, but I guess it was important to say it one last time! 
And our new home...actually a small independent house in Gurgaon, quietly redefining my Bombay sense of space!
