Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Ogilvy's law

I just read a little blurb here about Ogilvy's Law, which I had never heard of before.

David Ogilvy gets my vote as the greatest advertising mind of the 20th century. The founder of Ogilvy & Mather--now part of WPP left a rich legacy of ideas in his books, my favorite being Ogilvy on Advertising. Ogilvy wrote that whenever someone was appointed to head an office of O&M, he would give the manager a Russian nesting doll. These dolls open in the middle to reveal a smaller doll, which opens in the middle to reveal a yet smaller doll...and so on. Inside the smallest doll would be a note from Ogilvy. It read: "If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."

That's a really intersting perspective isn't it? It is so easy to think of our ministries as, well, 'ours.' What I'm learning to see, and call people to, is that our vision is bigger than just about us. We should be calling people to a movement that will way outlast us. Something that will go on for generations, an endeavor that will last decades after us. Thats why I, and most probably you, love working with young people.

Picture:A team of students helping out at Laurel Pregnancy Center, Laurel, MD, in January of 2004.

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