Disclaimer: This is a post I’ve written for my blog in May 2013 (I know, my blog is outdated, I’m currently focusing on Medium). It reached a lot of people and I got great feedback so I’ve decided to post it on Medium. A lot has happened since, you can read a summary of my life after this event at the end of this post.

I was expecting a rush of tears but I just sat there with a smile. For the first second after I’ve heard THE NEWS I was in a state of shock, but a moment after that a strange feeling of relief came upon me. I was liberated from the company which prevented my creative and personal development. THE END. No more frames within which I had to do my job. Only me and my human creativity.

It’s strange how our job determines who we are. To be honest I’ve never been a fan of large corporations or strange and robotic hierarchy within them. I am too stubborn and too much of a free-thinker. Therefore this stability was something new, strange and foreign.

Mad Men mislead us: Working at the ad agency ain’t even fun

I was working at the advertising agency from which I expected too much and gained too little. “Advertising agency” sounds so exotic in my country, but it turns out to be anything but that.

I was quickly trapped in making generic bullshit ads without deeper meaning or artistic value. If I ever suggested something out-of-the-box it was always “too modern”, “too minimalistic” and “too radical”. That wasn’t it.

Disappointed at the lack of innovation and clinging to traditional media I slowly realised I wasn’t meant to do this. I need challenges and not a job where I’m preparing the same boring print ads which will be observed by a small number of people who aren’t even our clients’ potential customers. I anticipated innovation but got a dull mediocrity.

I found my passion. And lived it.

The desire for challenges gave me the drive to find additional projects (even during my job at the ad agency) — designing newsletters, corporate identities, copywriting and above all social media management. For a long time I was preaching about the importance of social media but the CEO of our ad agency just didn’t see the potential in social networks. Therefore I was doing that on my own.

I discovered my passion that has been burning deep inside me. And when I was offered a great opportunity I grabbed it. And proved my point. I grew up with social networks, I understand their essence so I was happy to help companies successfully present themselves on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

Corporate rules and regulations obstruct creativity

For the past half year I’m criticising the absurdity of corporate rules and regulations that are framing employees. I think regulations like eight-hour workday, job titles which prevent learning other virtues, and paycheck independent of the work quality, are totally useless. I believe in the power of creativity based on freedom of choice, not limited to the strict 9-5 work-hours within which you must be creative. Or so the boss said.

That’s what led me thinking about establishing my own company based on good services and warm relationship with clients. People are not robots with prescribed tasks and behavior, even though some corporates usually behave like that. I believe that good relationships lead to success. But sadly not many companies think the same way.

This was the reason I slowly stopped socializing at work, which lead to getting fired. But if my philosophy and belief in good relationships, quality work and desire for progress and fulfillment of high standards in advertising were the reasons I got fired … I’m truly sorry. Not for me, but for them.

A creative and hardworking individual can do a better job than a well-established company

My belief that a creative individual can offer better advertising services than a company that has been on the martket for several years (but is not ready to evolve) certainly did not contribute to keeping my job. So what. I don’t want to work with a company who thinks many years of experience automatically means good work, despite the unwillingness to evolve.

My colleague persuaded me to say goodbye to all of the people who worked there. I just smiled and left. I don’t need fake empathy and hugs because I didn’t lose them. They lost me.

My name is Mojca. I’m a community manager, copywriter, designer and ultimately a creative individual who doesn’t believe in something that has already been tested but rather examines something new, untested. You need to have a pair of balls for the untested, everything else is a job for the faint-harted people who are afraid of the unknown.