Confidence

When I first started in advertising my conference report writing was, well, appalling. (In fact, if you recall my post about The Typo, perhaps it hasn't improved that much.) My boss at the time suggested I sign up for the Council Of Adult Education (CAE) course, Writing for Business.

It was a great idea and although it was only a few Thursday nights, it was well worth it.

A year later and at my next agency, I was browsing through the CAE brochure and saw a course "How To Assert Yourself." Now there's a skill, I thought to myself, that every junior advertising executive should have under his/her belt! The Managing Director even agreed to fund it.

A few days later, he called me in to his office. "A few of the Creatives have heard that you're doing this course...." Oh dear. Had I over stepped the mark, was I in trouble with the creative department? It wouldn't be the first or last time. "...and they are insisting," he continued sternly, "that if I pay for you to learn to be more assertive, I have to pay for them to do Self Defence."