This happened to me in the year two thousand and three.
I was reading a report about that year’s edition of FIAP, you know: the winners, finalists, speakers and everything that surrounds it, when suddenly I noticed someone else interested in the article. That someone was Luis DiNallo, my new boss who looking at the picture of a gray-haired gentleman that adorned the article said to me: ” …that guy is great, he’s a great person, he was the president of the jury of this year’s FIAP…” – to which I commented: ” …ah yeah, goodo…..y you know him mae?…”…” – receiving the following answer – ” …yeah sure, I once had the opportunity to meet him and chat with him, what a brilliant guy, excellent person…”. After this DiNallo continued on his way into the office.
I continued mine with the article which was like any other until I got to the subject of the jury. There again I ran into my new boss, only this time as part of the story. There was his name and position – Creative Vice President FischerAmerica – next to Leandro Raposo and the gray-haired man who turned out to be Miguel Furones (Deputy Chief Creative Officer for Leo Burnett Worldwide). I couldn’t believe it; but not because I doubted my new boss and his brazilian style creative skills or anything like that, but rather because of the life lesson he had just given me.
Right there, through example, I understood a quality that many of us don’t take into account in our creative growth process: humility. The one that great people bring as naturally as ideas themselves, that allows them to learn from others and that others learn from them. That humility that may not win awards, but it does win the creative respect of all of us who, while not great, want to become so. That which marks the subtle difference between a great creative and a creative master.