You may have noticed it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Things just kind of got away from me and despite a bounty of great topics ($1.1 billion for Tumblr? Really Yahoo!?), I got sidetracked by other things the biggest of which was our agency’s pitch for the Porsche business. The potential prestige of a win like that kept us working nights and weekends, filled with hopes and dreams.

Late yesterday afternoon, we learned we didn’t win. Sure, it happens more often than not in this business but still, you can’t ratchet down your dreams until you get the final call from the client. Which we did.

I posted this to Facebook within about half an hour of hearing the news. By then, Ad Age had broken the story so confidentiality was a non-issue.

Well Ad Age tweeted that Olson didn’t win Porsche. And I won’t lie; that’s more than a bit heartbreaking. But here in the ORD Delta Sky Club, CNN is reporting that there’s a school in OK that a hurricane obliterated. And unlike some other parents, I’m lucky to go home to my girls. And my 13 yo texted me this: “I’m so sorry! What a bummer! Don’t worry though, u are the best advertising company! And they are too wimpy to take on your awesomeness.”  It’s a pretty good day after all. 

Its not the most original sentiment, but it seemed to strike a chord, particularly Grace’s encouraging words. It was Liked nearly 200 times, which beats my average Facebook post by a factor of, well, around 200x. And the comments were uniformly encouraging and empathetic.

Basically, we’re not all that different. All of us really want to win and do interesting things and it bums us out when we don’t. But at those times, its worth bearing in mind that your client or friend or organization just might be “–too wimpy to take on your awesomeness.”

Here’s to your awesomeness.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson