Issue 25

This newsletter has hit its quarter-life crisis.

Old enough to rent a car without the surcharge, young enough to be forgiven for questionable decisions.

Here’s to twenty-five more.

You don’t pick up a chainsaw expecting it to delicately slice through flesh. And you sure as hell don’t use a scalpel to hack through a tree. 

The chainsaw’s beauty lies in versatility. It can do many things well enough. It’ll turn trees into stumps with relative ease, but ask it to make an incision and you’ll lose an arm.

A scalpel is all about precision. It does one thing, and it does it incredibly well.

Early in my career, I desperately wanted to be the scalpel. Ask me to handle marketing, social media, strategy, or analytics, and I was visibly irritated. I just wanted to write clever copy. 

As I’ve worked with more creatives over the years, I’ve learned the value of being a “hyphen-stacker,” or someone who can handle a little bit of everything and knows how to use those skills to draw out unique ideas and conclusions. 

The mistake is trying to be the chainsaw and the scalpel. While the world needs both, and neither one is superior, it’s important to know which side you fall on. 

Are you someone who enjoys doing a bit of everything? Or are you better at laser-focusing on one thing, and doing it better than anyone else?

Success comes when you know the answer, and pursue it relentlessly. 

View the full ad archive on Are.na
Stay in touch on IG