Maurilio Amorim

Tag: future

  • My Loss of Entitlement Saved My Future

    I know entitlement first hand. My Brazilian mindset had prepared me for a privileged life where I expected my parents to pay for college, find me a high-paying job, pay for my wedding and set me and my future bride in a new house they would build for us. Nice, isn’t. But that’s not the way it all happened, and for that, I’m most thankful.

    On my 19th birthday I got a call from Brazil letting me know that the government had frozen any money transfers going outside the country. And even without that restriction in place, my parents could no longer afford to pay for my college education. Therefore goodbye,

    free college education

    wedding,

    first house.

    easy job.

    I was crushed. It was the best thing that could have happened to me.

    I have thanked God for that disappointing news many times over the years. In a conversation, my sense of entitlement suddenly disappeared and I was forced to take charge of my own life and trust God for my future. It was traumatic but powerful in a positive way. Whatever little success I have in life today, I trace it  directly to that conversation and the shifting of my expectations and mindset. I still battle entitlement often. When I hear these words come out of my mouth, I know I’m headed down the entitlement road: “I just deserve more. I worked harder than that person; therefore I should be further ahead. These are rules for other people. They don’t apply to me”

    What about you? Have you ever felt a sense of entitlement? Has adversity made you a better person?

  • My Prayer for the American Church

    Someone asked me yesterday “so what do you think is the future of the church in America?” Boy, that’s a loaded question. A lot of people smarter than me have speculated on where the American church is headed. Some feel hopeful but many others have pointed towards the spiritual darkness of the European landscape as its future. While I’ll leave the speculation to pollsters, here’s my prayer for the Church in America:

    My Prayer for the American Church

    I pray that the church will continue to seek those outside the faith. I believe that nothing is closer to heart of God than rescuing those for whom He sent his Son to die on the cross.

    I pray that the church will live its faith out in authentic community where the broken as well as the whole can do life together.

    I pray that the church will continue to remind Christians that while we are change agents in this world, we are not to be comfortable in it. After all, the world was not meant to be our home.

    I pray that the church will find its voice in each new generation and speak hope and truth in clear and compelling ways.

    I pray that I will become what God has created me to be so that His Church can do all He has designed her to do.

    What is your prayer for the Church in America?

  • The Future of Advertising

    First the news, then the music industry, now advertising: the digital revolution is bringing down Madison Avenue like no other force has in the history of the Ad Agency. Some estimate that over 160,000 people have lost their jobs in the advertising industry in the past 2 years. I don’t think that’s the recession’s fault. Not completely anyway. The slow down in the economy just accelerated the demise of the old  advertising agency model, but the new ad world looks vastly different than the bloated budgets of the 30-second spot and national media buys. Here’s what I see happening:

    National spots will fade into individually customized pitch. Interestingly, I sent out a tweet this past weekend that showed my displeasure with the Audi/Jaguar/Porsche dealership in Nashville:

    A few hours later, I heard from a dealership. It wasn’t from the Audi/Jaguar/Porsche but from the local Cadillac twitter account, Crestgroup:

    I’m quite impressed with Crest’s ability to monitor “car noise” in the Nashville social media stream and to reach out to me with a very custom and effective message.

    The advertising agency of the future will become a technology agency. Technology is no longer something we use. It’s now a part of who we are. Have you been in a mall lately? Have you seen the hoards of young and old walking and typing on their mobile devices? My iPhone was stolen and for the few hours I didn’t have it, my life was upside down. I wrote about it here. Communication and technology are so closely woven that the Ad Agency of the future cannot afford to develop marketing strategies without developing technology alongside it.

    Product, messaging and advertising will be a collaborative process. Instead of the current silo approach where a team develops the product, another positions it and someone else  promotes it without much interactivity–if any at all, a successful product launch will be a multi-discipline effort.  A team of creatives, developers, brand managers, social media specialists, will work together from the inception of the project and input from marketing will help product development from day one. Instead of clients showing up with a product ready to go to market and saying, “here it is; now sell it,” the agency of the future will not only help sell, but often design and deploy new ideas. They will be at the table from ideation to launch.

    How has advertising changed in your experience?

  • Finding Your Perfect Job Has More To do With You Than The Market

    Lately I have spent time with several friends on their careers. The tough economy, life transition and leadership issues have forced some of my friends to reconsider their current employment.  It’s not uncommon for what you thought to be your dream job turn into your living nightmare. Over the years I have heard plenty of times, “I was hired to do one thing and now my job is doing something completely different.” It happens–more so these days than ever before.  While I empathize with their pain ( I have been there before)  I usually tell them: Don’t run away from a bad situation. Instead run toward the future you want.

    Find your perfect job career

    Every time we run from a job, we risk of ending up in a similar situation later down the road. Before you search for another job or decide to make a career move, take time and do some honest soul searching. Here’s where I would start:

    know your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest with yourself. Don’t buy into your own PR. You’re not good at everything. None of us are. Unless you can understand what you do well and what you don’t, you’ll never put yourself in a place where you can succeed. If you’re not a numbers person, then admit it. Stay away from business administration and accounting. Your perfect job will never be something you are not good doing. Never.

    Understand the environment you work best. Work environment makes a difference in performance. If you’re a collaborative person, than a job where you work alone or from home is not going to get the best out of you.

    Create a list of your past “wins” and find a common thread. Look back and catalog the projects, jobs, or situations where you had positive results or feedback. What made them succeed? If you can find the winning pattern, it will help you identify the key elements that will help you succeed in your new position. 

    Design your ideal job/career in your mind. It’s easy to say “yes” to a lot of things when you don’t have a strong idea of what you really want. It’s easy to say “no” to a good opportunity when you’re waiting to say “yes” to your perfect job.

    Connect the dots. In my experience, the perfect job you want is usually two or three steps, jobs, opportunities away from where you are. Learn to connect the dots and strategically pursue the next logical opportunity.

    What other advice would you give someone who is ready to make a job or career move?