The bloody clock!
Pace is 11 years old this month. And running an agency for 11 years gives you a particular perspective on time.
Campaigns come and go. Clients come and go. People join, grow and move on. Technology transforms the industry. Things you once thought were permanent turn out to be temporary.
And meanwhile, time keeps marching on.
Time has always been my nemesis. All my life, I’ve set myself personal challenges ‘against the clock’. For some reason, I’ve always wanted to be first. In some instances, it’s served me well (for example, wanting to be first across the line in a track race). In many others, it’s been a bit pointless (did it really matter if I didn’t finish the test first?). Why do I feel the need to constantly challenge myself?
Time is the one thing we can’t control and it’s so true that the older you get, the more it seems to accelerate. These feelings are amplified when you have children (our two daughters are unbelievably approaching their seventeeth and fifteenth birthdays).
When you're starting a business, you tend to think in long horizons. Five years seems like it will be a long time. Ten years feels almost unimaginable. You’re focused on creating something from nothing, building a business, winning clients and being successful.
Then suddenly you're eleven years in.
And you realise that time is accelerating faster than ever. Years disappear into projects, pitches, meetings, new hires, wins, setbacks, Christmas parties, client deadlines and the daily schedule.
I’m faced with a big milestone birthday next year – one which is triggering a lot of questions about whether I’m planning to retire (no I’m not).
Because despite the runway getting shorter, there’s still so much I want to do.
I’m no less ambitious - I’m just more conscious of the finite amount of time I have to pursue that ambition. I know the future has a habit of becoming the past too quickly.
There are still ideas I want to pursue. People I want to work with. Risks I want to take. Mistakes I haven't made yet. Places I want the agency to go. Things I know we're capable of that we haven't even attempted yet.
And that’s exciting.
I know I don’t have anything to prove but I do still have a lot more to give. And there is no time to waste.
Pace by name; and if ever there was any doubt, definitely Pace by nature!
