What Mad Men Can Teach You About Your Job
Leave a work conference unannounced for weeks, your boss cannot stop you
I missed Friday’s episode recap because I started a new job last week! This month has been exciting but very busy. I will find a balance for work, Mad World, and of course leaving meetings to aimlessly drive around the country as I open up too much to strangers and discover my purpose in the world.
If I ever miss a Friday episode recap, I will make a Sunday special article free for all subscribers!
Seeking to build a balance in my life, I am reflecting on what Mad Men can teach us about how to have a happy and successful career. Directly emulating any of these characters will leave you beaten and unloved but that should go without saying.
You can learn a lot about how to have an unsuccessful work life from Mad Men but let’s look at why Don Draper is an awarded and respected success in his industry.
What sets him apart from the average suit?
Don’s great ability as an adman is pulling an idea out of thin air and acting as if it was always there. In the show’s pilot, Don can be seen flipping through a folder of empty papers while he tries to conjure up a pitch good enough to keep Lucky Strike’s business. He then builds his pitch by using their words, “It’s toasted.”
He is confident without being cocky in a way that sinks Pete Campbell. This is done by building an idea with the client or a copywriter present, a collaboration he leads.
Walk into work knowing that you will not know everything but confident that you can be the one to guide a discovery. Pete will take an idea and force it, poisoning the well should his pitch fail.
Present confidence and encourage it in others
Adapt to what can change
When change is good, make others feel like they are a part of the process.
Don connects with clients, making his pitches more than just an advertisement. He is reaching into unspoken memories that make him feel like a friend rather than another suit.
He can… get a little too personal, though.
This list could go far beyond the Substack length limit so I am keeping it simple. Here is what Don teaches us not to do at work:
Do not make only one thing in life your entire focus
Do not take failure as an insult rather than an opportunity
Do not throw other employees’ ideas aside in favor of prioritizing yourself
Do not decline to communicate because others should “understand you”
Do not leave when things get hard
There is no one like Don Draper and you need to look at yourself as a unique talent too. Your workplace hired you because you stood out, not because you blended in with the wallpaper… or perhaps it was because your boss drunkenly used your pitch from your job interview by accident, I don’t know.
Don is a selfish liar who never forgets that he started at the bottom and always fears plummeting back into nothingness. Fear is no basis for a happy life at work or home.
You are going to fail and can choose to learn from it. Any failure will be handled alone if you alienate and refuse to communicate with others.
If you leave others when things get hard, they will leave you.
Mad Men teaches you to recognize the talent in yourself and others… and to not cheat on your wife… and also don’t embezzle money… and of course don’t put yourself up for a government contract if you stole a man’s identity… and you shouldn’t hire people with animal names… and lest we forget if you drive a lawnmower through work to aim away from feet… oh and also…
Best of luck to you all wherever your career is and whatever your goals may be!