When a child is born we don’t expect it to start walked right away. We tend and care for the child until it’s old enough to move on to the next stage of their life. We patiently wait for the next major stage before crawling, their first words and walking. Before that they start eating solid food. This is the point in a child’s life when they taste all the options and figure out what they like. This is a messy process and can mean that food is all over their face and clothes.
They continue growing and now can get their hand there with majority of the food. Before long they’re crawling. They hold on to something and prop themselves up and walk with assistance. Somewhere in there they say their first word and you melt at the sound. Not before long they will take their first unassisted steps. They will fall. They will get up. Try again, quick phase of walking then they’re off running.
What they call the terrible twos will make you start wondering what’s going on, when the answer to everything is NO. Then you have major events that occur, birthday after birthday one change after the next. Before you know it they’re a teenager. A stage that doesn’t need too much explanation. The stage in their life that you gets you to think the devil has possessed my child. Nonetheless you are their parent so you stick by their side. You do your best to make sure they don’t go down the “wrong” path. You see the teen years through and they go to college and become their own person. During this time they work on their personal growth, understand a few of the responsibilities that adults go through. They start understand you as a parent more. They appreciate you more. They graduate with mom & dad on top of their graduation cap. After this you will come across some more challenges but not as much as before. You will have more rewards and less struggles. You will be look up to for advice and guidance, having a good time with the grand kids and live you’re life out to be old and wrinkly.
This is not the reflection of any particular child. It is also not a psychological explanation of child development. It is a metaphor for the advertising industry in Ethiopia. Even thought advertising has develop to the college age if not older in most countries. It’s still a growing industry here in Ethiopia. It’s still in it’s childhood ages. With that being said I’ve come across a few frustrated people who look to get inspiration and felt that there was nothing good enough. Or look out to other countries advertisement and find themselves getting disappointed in where we are as a country. The industry is very young and no matter what it’s OUR baby. We can’t trade it in for someone else and we sure as hell can’t give up on it that easily. If we neglect being a guide at some stage of our child’s life then how can we expect it to catch up to where the western world is. And it sucks to say that we may not be the ones who see the child grow to be a teenage. It may be the new generation of advertisers, or even the ones after them. So as much as it may seem like the long hours spent, the color correction argument, the list of great ideas that get pushed aside by clients, the failure to execute and idea as planned, and the many challenges we face for lack of resources, lack of profession, lack of whatever It may be. We have to keep raising our child. If we’re serious about being able to bring home the heart melting first words (the award) then it’s a must we continue with out long hours, sleepless nights, whatever it take. And I may be over extending myself to say that this applies to the creative world as a whole.
None the less we can’t kill creativity while it’s still young.
They continue growing and now can get their hand there with majority of the food. Before long they’re crawling. They hold on to something and prop themselves up and walk with assistance. Somewhere in there they say their first word and you melt at the sound. Not before long they will take their first unassisted steps. They will fall. They will get up. Try again, quick phase of walking then they’re off running.
What they call the terrible twos will make you start wondering what’s going on, when the answer to everything is NO. Then you have major events that occur, birthday after birthday one change after the next. Before you know it they’re a teenager. A stage that doesn’t need too much explanation. The stage in their life that you gets you to think the devil has possessed my child. Nonetheless you are their parent so you stick by their side. You do your best to make sure they don’t go down the “wrong” path. You see the teen years through and they go to college and become their own person. During this time they work on their personal growth, understand a few of the responsibilities that adults go through. They start understand you as a parent more. They appreciate you more. They graduate with mom & dad on top of their graduation cap. After this you will come across some more challenges but not as much as before. You will have more rewards and less struggles. You will be look up to for advice and guidance, having a good time with the grand kids and live you’re life out to be old and wrinkly.
This is not the reflection of any particular child. It is also not a psychological explanation of child development. It is a metaphor for the advertising industry in Ethiopia. Even thought advertising has develop to the college age if not older in most countries. It’s still a growing industry here in Ethiopia. It’s still in it’s childhood ages. With that being said I’ve come across a few frustrated people who look to get inspiration and felt that there was nothing good enough. Or look out to other countries advertisement and find themselves getting disappointed in where we are as a country. The industry is very young and no matter what it’s OUR baby. We can’t trade it in for someone else and we sure as hell can’t give up on it that easily. If we neglect being a guide at some stage of our child’s life then how can we expect it to catch up to where the western world is. And it sucks to say that we may not be the ones who see the child grow to be a teenage. It may be the new generation of advertisers, or even the ones after them. So as much as it may seem like the long hours spent, the color correction argument, the list of great ideas that get pushed aside by clients, the failure to execute and idea as planned, and the many challenges we face for lack of resources, lack of profession, lack of whatever It may be. We have to keep raising our child. If we’re serious about being able to bring home the heart melting first words (the award) then it’s a must we continue with out long hours, sleepless nights, whatever it take. And I may be over extending myself to say that this applies to the creative world as a whole.
None the less we can’t kill creativity while it’s still young.