David Jones

Your career will disappoint you at some point. Pretty much everybody will have a failure, will get fired. It's gonna happen, so if you make that the defining point of your life, you're not gonna have a great time.

Your career will disappoint you at some point. Pretty much everybody will have a failure, will get fired. It's gonna happen, so if you make that the defining point of your life, you're not gonna have a great time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, I was not. If you'd asked me at age 18, I could do anything or be anything in the world. It would either have been a professional rugby player or a professional tennis player. My life was sport back there. Marketing, I got into by accident.

No, I was not. If you'd asked me at age 18, I could do anything or be anything in the world. It would either have been a professional rugby player or a professional tennis player. My life was sport back there. Marketing, I got into by accident.

Literally, my life was sport. I'd go and play tennis tournaments around the world, play a lot of rugby, and decided I should probably have some kind of academic qualification. So I signed up for what was the European Union's, EU's first EU-sponsored business degree, which sent me off to Germany to business school.

Literally, my life was sport. I'd go and play tennis tournaments around the world, play a lot of rugby, and decided I should probably have some kind of academic qualification. So I signed up for what was the European Union's, EU's first EU-sponsored business degree, which sent me off to Germany to business school.

I was in business school there, learned fluent German, had to do my exams in German for three years, which was, again, a kind of a big wake-up call. But as part of that, we had people who would come in and talk

I was in business school there, learned fluent German, had to do my exams in German for three years, which was, again, a kind of a big wake-up call. But as part of that, we had people who would come in and talk

at business school and one of them came along and talked about advertising agencies and planning and it was super interesting and I decided I should probably go and do an internship in an ad agency.

at business school and one of them came along and talked about advertising agencies and planning and it was super interesting and I decided I should probably go and do an internship in an ad agency.

I had to do like a six-month internship and I'd planned it all so that I could leave for a tennis tournament, spend six months playing tennis in the US and get back and start on that date and I get my six months in and in fact the internship that I'd lined up fell through and the Professor, the dean of the business school was not too happy.

I had to do like a six-month internship and I'd planned it all so that I could leave for a tennis tournament, spend six months playing tennis in the US and get back and start on that date and I get my six months in and in fact the internship that I'd lined up fell through and the Professor, the dean of the business school was not too happy.

Got a very stroppy letter from him saying he couldn't believe I was leaving for a tennis tournament without having secured a final year internship. And back then, email wasn't the thing. So I just picked up the phone, called a whole bunch of ad agencies, pretended to several of them that I was the marketing director of Coca-Cola and asked to speak to their CEO as I was running a pitch.

Got a very stroppy letter from him saying he couldn't believe I was leaving for a tennis tournament without having secured a final year internship. And back then, email wasn't the thing. So I just picked up the phone, called a whole bunch of ad agencies, pretended to several of them that I was the marketing director of Coca-Cola and asked to speak to their CEO as I was running a pitch.

And everyone put me through. And then 50% of the people I spoke to were like, you're a complete time waste. You'll never get a job in this industry. And 50% were like, that's quite smart. I'm obviously not going to see you, but I'll put you in touch with the person who runs our internship program. And long story short, landed on an internship in advertising and kind of never looked back.

And everyone put me through. And then 50% of the people I spoke to were like, you're a complete time waste. You'll never get a job in this industry. And 50% were like, that's quite smart. I'm obviously not going to see you, but I'll put you in touch with the person who runs our internship program. And long story short, landed on an internship in advertising and kind of never looked back.

I think there's a thread all about understanding people. And actually, that was what fascinated me about the person who came. He was a head of planning from an agency called BMP in the UK who'd kind of invented strategic planning and just talking about people and what motivated people and how you change people's behavior.

I think there's a thread all about understanding people. And actually, that was what fascinated me about the person who came. He was a head of planning from an agency called BMP in the UK who'd kind of invented strategic planning and just talking about people and what motivated people and how you change people's behavior.