George Tannenbaum was hired the same time I was in 1990, to be my copywriter-partner at a well-known (at the time) ad agency, Ally & Gargano, 1990-1995. I was an art director. We were both just past a solid start in our careers as creatives in advertising. George wound up being super-successful in advertising—he’s an Executive Creative Director and Copy Chief at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and I wound up flunking out of that business that George still works in.

In this episode, I coerce George into making a lot of this session into therapy about me, while putting George on the spot. I must say he’s a great sport about trying to help me resolve some difficult questions I still have about myself as a functioning adult in a workplace. It’s interesting to hear George’s take on our shared experiences, what George’s natural abilities are and how he’s succeeded in a highly cutthroat, competitive environment. George has a lot of his own great insights and anecdotes about working as a creative person in a corporate environment. Afterwards, I had a thought that perhaps George’s role as a dad gave him more distance from himself in order to survive in the workplace – maybe? I dunno.

One of George’s gifts is his wildly popular ad blog that is relatable to anyone who works in any business. George’s humor gets to the heart of the challenge of being a human in this world.