John Baldoni is a globally recognized executive coach and leadership educator. He has penned 14 books. In a recent advertising newsletter Baldoni reminds us how brilliant physicist Richard Feynman was and how his scientific “life lessons” apply to business and leadership. Feynman, who died in 1988, likely attended lectures by Einstein in the 40s, and met Stephen Hawking in the 60s. In 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics along with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Julian Schwinger for their work in quantum electrodynamics. Like Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the late Carl Sagan, Feynman was a gifted communicator. Many of the “life lessons” Baldoni points out are sound advice for anyone in a leadership position. They also make terrific sense in the world of advertising. A good place to start would be to “See failure as a beginning.”
See failure as a beginning
Feynman said, “Experiment, fail, learn, and repeat.” He knew he would experiment; he knew his experiments would often fail. Advertising is, or at least should be, an experimental arena. We have to try new things, and to succeed, we have to be willing to fail. Research can be predictive but is far from perfect, so it won’t always protect you.
Assume nothing, question everything
We tend to assume a lot. We expect certain things to work because they’ve worked before. The truth is, they don’t. In terms of advertising, timing can’t ever be repeated exactly. A holiday promotion that worked last year may in fact work again. It might even do better. On the other hand, this year isn’t last year, and the only way to know for sure is to repeat it. A Madison Avenue creative once advised us, “the only true test is the marketplace.”
It’s OK not to have all the answers
This is among our favorites. It applies to leadership and to our industry. No one knows it all. Feynman was comfortable with that. We should be, too. Knowledge is certainly a good thing, but in lieu of having all the answers, cultivate the ability to find them.
Imagination is important
Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Feynman’s version is softer. Imagination is what separates the mundane from the magnificent. Leaders in our industry (and pretty much every other industry) should always be encouraging creatives to pursue ideas no matter how farfetched they may seem at first.
Stay curious
Curiosity didn’t kill the cat, it showed him where the mouse was hiding. The advertising industry and its leaders often rely on the routine, but it’s curiosity that makes things better, finds solutions and increases knowledge. In advertising, we go out of our way to make the consumer curious. We should always encourage our own curiosity.