When you can’t change the direction of the wind — adjust your sails (H Jackson Brown Jr)

A little over 20 years ago I became a father of two pretty fabulous daughters. Every year, most days I got to figure out how to be a father. Books don’t tell you everything there is to know. My own parents turned out to be right more often than I’ve given them credit for (something I figured out much later in life). 

Kids are kids are kids are kids. They learn to crawl just when you get used to them sitting up (all precious things soon move 6 feet off the floor). They learn to talk and before you know they talk back. Let them play dress-ups in the garden and hey presto they’re dressed up and off to the ball. It seems one direction only for my daughters, called independence - all the way. I (alongside my amazing wife) figured the best I can do is to give them some good values, something to fall back on when I’m not around.

As the girls grew up and years flew passed I learned to adjust my sails, whilst staying on course, doing my best to instill these values. I think I did pretty OK, but let my girls be the better judge of that. 

Likewise, most days our clients look to resolve a challenge they have. I give them process, feed them information, let them run with an idea. But adjusting my sails again, I figured I could do better, to modify how I interact with them whenever necessary, to make the overall experience worth their while. We can’t presume that they will do as we would like them to do with their brand & comms once they’re out of sight, but sure hope that through their experience working with us they truly value what we’ve taught them.