WARREN COCKREL

I was never actually given my first job in advertising. I took it. I didn’t know I was taking it, because at the time I didn’t know much about anything. I thought that when someone in an interview asks you when you can start that means you’re hired. Offer letters? Young me had never heard of those. A polite handshake and a question about my general availability and in my head I was hired. Even went big with my ad school friends that night to celebrate.

Two weeks later I arrive promptly at 8:30. Again, I’m right out of school and have no idea nobody in advertising arrives at 8:30. The receptionist has no clue who I am so he plops me in an empty office and tells me to wait. I grab a newspaper. The Wall Street Journal. I’ve never actually read it before, but it’s my first day and it looks pretty business-y. An hour goes by. Then another. People start to trickle in. The same people then walk back by and stare in my direction. Things are starting to feel weird. Like I’m at the zoo. Like I’m not supposed to be here. I’m starting to replay the interview in my head. I’m starting to freak out.

Steve Stone and Bob Kerstetter come into the office and ask what I’m doing here. They’re both laughing and wide-eyed. I start today I tell them. We didn’t actually hire you they say. I almost throw up on their flip flops. So I say the first thing that pops into my head. “I thought I’d err on the side of eager." When they finally stop laughing, they tell me I can stay and then show my to my cubicle. 

In the 20 years since, I've worked on all kinds of assignments, run all kinds of accounts, and won all kinds of awards. But my first day is never far from how I approach any problem. Show up (even if you weren't technically invited), work hard, be okay with embarrassing yourself, and always err on the side of eager.