A strange and wonderful thing happened to me today. Today is the day I started to truly believe that dreams do come true.

I'm not sure what it is, but I have been lucky in life. I've always achieved what I've been striving for. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, the pressure of getting into advertising, and the mere concept of working and doing something amazing with my life had worn down my faith in my own abilities. I began to doubt my skills as a writer and as a creative. I was surrounded by people who were talented, and began to think of myself as less talented than them. I'm not sure if its true, but its the way I felt about it. One thing I did have going for me was this: I have and have always had an amazing passion for this industry. So much so, that I was willing to change everything in my life so that I could do better work. My whole lifestyle encompassed only advertising and nothing else for the past two years. Make no mistake though, I loved every minute of it. The craze, the drama, the ideas, the inspiration and even the stress were all exciting to me. In the end though, even after working as hard as I did, I wasn't sure that I would make it or that anyone would think of me as a brilliant creative.

Then, out of the blue, I decided that I wanted to learn differently. I wanted to learn from someone who I admired more than anyone else in the industry. The best thing my professor Anthony Kalamut taught me is, ask, the worst anyone can say is no. So I went ahead and asked Alex Bogusky if he would be kind enough to be my mentor. He graciously agreed. In the past few weeks, I've realized one thing. When good people achieve great things, everyone benifits. If Alex wasn't the gracious and compassionate person he is, I would never get to see the humanity in advertising like I have today. He gave me hope and encouragement in ways I never thought I would feel again. My work and my portfolio have become something I am proud to display, and that confidence has come because he believed in me.

Finally, this has all lead to the pinnacle of all great moments. I found out that I've been selected for an internship at CP+B. The Agency my dreams were made of. It's like everything I ever wanted my career to be, is starting to come true. I don't know if it's luck, if it's the fact that I have great teachers or the fact that I have an amazing mentor. I hope it has a little to do with me too, but the bottom line is that I've been given the chance to life my passion and persue my dreams. Something I still can't believe. I walk into this new chapter in life with a renewed sense of hope and excitement. I know that with hard work and a little bit of talent, this is going to be the start of something wonderful.

So to those of you who have wanted something badly enough, have some faith in yourself and go out and get it. If you can't find it in yourself at first, then look around you. The world will push to where you need to be and you will find your way. Also, if you find someone who believes in you, take strength from their conviction and inspire yourself. Amazing things happen when inspiration burns bright.

So here's to dreams coming true.

Cheers!

A New Perspective.

Something interesting happened to me in the past two weeks. Something I have been waiting for since the past seven years. I found my confidence.

As a writer, confidence is both omnipresent and elusive all at once. On one hand most writers feel that we can't do anything other than write, because that's what we love and it's what we're good at. On the other hand, we can't stop criticizing our own work, constantly thinking that it's not good enough, or that we're not creative enough to be able to showcase our work.

I've been going through this constant struggle to find myself, and some proof that I'm good enough to enter the advertising industry and last. Finally, it came to me, my proof.

One day I was dejectedly staring at my portfolio, finding errors and being overly critical. Then suddenly, inspiration struck from nowhere. I decided to start from scratch. I took out everything I had done before, and decided that it wasn't good enough. Then I came up with 13 different products, and began to do some hard core research. A couple of days later, when I felt like there were enough insights for me to begin writing, I decided to put pen to paper. The more I wrote, the better I felt. Some ideas got rejected, and some I fell immediately in love with. There was such a serge of creativity that I felt elated. It was a total rush.

When I finally hashed out all the good ideas, I was convinced that I had something good. I continued to work on my ads for the next few days, lapping up critism from whomever would give it to me. Then, after tweaking and turning and obsessing, I finally finished my second version of my portfolio. The real moment of truth came, when I compared it to my old portfolio and realized the long way I had come since then.

The real lesson I learnt wasn't that I'm a genius writer, but that with practice, and constant revision, I can be the writer I want to be. It's hard work, but totally worth it.

Here's to working hard and achieving our dreams.

Cheers.