Probably the most important (and poignant) advice I’ve heard came from a stranger:

His name is Brian Dyson. He’s the former CEO of Coca-Cola.

His advice is not specifically around the topics I write about — copywriting, creativity, storytelling — but it does, I think, apply uniquely to the folks who work in these disciplines…

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Because creative work can be so personal and, of course, demanding. It can engulf you, if you let it, swallowing your time, your relationships, your thoughts, everything, all of it. It can take and take until there’s no sense to anything, to the structure of anything.

In this way, the advice Dyson gave to Georgia Tech graduates during his commencement speech some thirty years ago affected my work — and life — more than any single creative technique or principle I’ve learned.

What he said changed my perspective, which changed everything:

He told the audience to imagine life as a game of juggling five balls — and the goal is not to let any of them fall.

The five balls are work, family, health, friends, and spirit. All the balls are glass except the work ball, which is rubber.

If the rubber ball falls, it will bounce back, intact, unaffected.

But if one of the glass balls were to fall:

“It will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, even shattered,” said Dyson. “It will never be the same,” he said.

In hindsight…

Reflecting on my own life — the missteps and blunders, the mistakes at the office, at home, and everywhere else — Dyson’s analogy rings true, remarkably so, painfully so:

After all the follies and failures, all the breaks and interruptions, my work always rebounded.

But when a glass ball became damaged, it was impossible to make whole again: the cracks forever visible, the chips forever vacant space. My God.

And yet so many creative people, consciously or otherwise, prioritize their work — and not for livelihood but for legacy! For pride!

Beau (2 years old) and Kels (9 months pregnant).

“Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others,” said Dyson. “Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you,” he said. “Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart,” he pleaded. “Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.”