Remember Your Roots
As you start your marketing career, remember what you are doing, right now! Learn from your activities today. Understand what you are doing and why you are doing it – i.e. your activities in the grand scheme of things.
As you get older and move into bigger and bigger things, your experience as an assistant manager WILL come back to help you. You will understand why a tri-fold brochure is needed, when you need to ship something same day vs. overnight, or even how you will have a complete 20′x20′ booth built in less then a week for the largest trade show in the world.
What’s my point? My point is that your boss or boss’s boss won’t know or have any inkling. You may be the VP of Marketing and your CMO may have NEVER had to work a trade show in their life (I mean WORK a trade show, putting it up and tearing it down AND working the 10 hour daily shifts). Your experience will enable you to be a better manager of your staff. Of being able to talk to the CEO from experience.
So many times throughout your career you will have a boss that has not done half of the things you have. This does NOT make him stronger, nor does it make you stronger – it makes you WISER.
Being wise saves time, effort, and money – three things that are becoming more and more relevant in today’s economy.
Don’t disregard your past too easily or quickly – it has value more then you or anyone else could ever measure.
