IKEA "DOORS"
My father is German. Because of that, I have a good amount of German temper in my blood. I need very tidy processes for everything. I can't see anything escaping the original plan. When I was seven, my mother had to tell me that if I do something wrong at school, I shouldn't worry too much. You can imagine how square I was.
That's why, later, in advertising, my biggest challenge was getting used to the randomness of my brain when having ideas. Let alone trying to make it follow a schedule.
The unpredictability of my thoughts became clear in one specific case.
It was the first campaign ever for IKEA in Lithuania. Everybody was waiting to see what we were going to do. And, of course, I was totally blocked, which leads you to be stressed, which leads you to be angry, which leads you to say: "fuck it, I hate this job, I'll just wait, do nothing and die".
It was Sunday, and the deadline to present ideas was on Monday. I was hanging out at home with my girlfriend at that time. She wanted to go out (she always wanted to go out), but I was tired, and suggested her to stay at home and watch a movie instead. She got all upset, and told me that staying at home is for losers who don't want to have adventures in life.
Oh, boy. She shoudn't have said that. Because being stressed also leads you to lose patience easily.
I looked at her with tired eyes and started my speech. I told her: "Look: you were born here, so, if you would decide to stay at home one day instead of going out, then you may be a loser. But I come from the other side of the world. This is the third country I moved into, without knowing much about it, and not even understanding the language. And I pay this flat and the food in my fridge by having ideas that come out of my head without any schedule, hoping everyday that they will come again on the right time, if they come at all. So, if I stay sitting on my sofa for a month, I will be living an amazing adventure anyways. Because each time I open my door, when I come back home, I remember all the bad flats and the difficulties I had. Until now, when, after risking everything, I finally come back to a place that makes me feel at least a bit proud of myself."
She didn't like it. I don't remember if she left or if she stayed. But I remember that the next thing I did was to open my computer and write this script.
