Adgully Exclusive | Walking down the memory lane: Josy Paul

I graduated from St Xavier's College where I fell in love with Atomic Physics, football and extra curricular activities. Creativity helped me make the extra buck and also gave me a chance to interact with some really intelligent students ' specially women - who even paid me for the posters I made with a set of calligraphy pens that my uncle gifted me. I suppose all this attention fooled me into thinking I was creative!

When I went for my first job at HTA (now JWT), they rejected me because I had no degree in art. Then Lintas (now Lowe) rejected me saying that I was not creative (they knew the truth) The truth is we are all born to be creative. No one can tell us otherwise! Most schools and classrooms give us great foundations! But unfortunately, they also make us conform. The battle between conformity and creativity is the battle to find oneself!

I lost my first job at Interads Advertising in just a month of joining - because I back answered the big boss.I lost my second job in two months because the boss did not like the way I looked at him. Advertising is an irrational business!

Physics and despair led me to the Himalayas. The mountains don't know who you are? There's an anonymity that allows you to disappear into yourself. The beaches, on the other hand, are wide open.

You stand exposed all the time. Water touches sand and rocks and and it's sensual and violent! Mountains and clouds have a more passive relationship. They don't seek immediate answers! I'm a mountain person. Atomic physics and mountains go together. It's a state of mind!

When I got back, I realized I belonged to the mountains! I couldn't handle the city. I began to drink. Once, in a drunken stupor, I gate crashed a party and in a moment of passion, stood on the host's dining table and gave a speech about creativity.

People thought I was mad! The host was kind enough to let me go, but not before he took my name and number.

Two days later I get a letter from him inviting me to be a judge in a contest that his company was promoting. Turned out he was an important marketing guy from Cadbury's and the promo was the 5 STAR "WIN A FLAT' contest. The other three judges were the senior creative directors of the ad agencies that worked with Cadbury's.

I was a misfit in a company of so many stars!

One of them was Ashok Sarath of Ogilvy. He introduced me to Suresh Mullick. Suresh hired me based on his own instinct, and not because of my portfolio. Some people are so generous, it makes you cry! How can they be so good! Suresh was a giver! He never took. You realize you are the sum of all the people who gave you and took from you. Suresh tilted the balance! Suresh Mullick and Ogilvy changed my life. I began to fly.

Soon I met a guy named Neville D'Souza. We met on the bus to Goa! He was the most talented art director in Ogilvy. We hit it off instantly. Somewhere between Mumbai and Goa we knew we had to work together! We became a team. A notorious team! Every time there was a fight in office about work ' with a VP or a client - we used to run away to Goa! Our escapades became so frequent that soon Neville bought a house in Goa!

Our name spread! Our work got better. We got an offer from Lintas, from Kersy Katrak and Alyque Padamsee! At 26, I was probably the youngest creative director in the industry and working with the legends of advertising!

Our work gained recognition. We became famous in our little world called advertising. The front page of ET's Brand Equity carried a picture of us in a graveyard with the caption "till death do us part'. It took us 2 days and a passionate young photographer called Bharat Chanda to get the right photo!

After the success of the indya.com campaign in April 2000,and after Neville vanished to stay in Goa permanently, I left Lintas to launch a "challenger' new start up called rmg david ' along with Madhukar Sabnavis and Ogilvy. It was my defining years. We resigned from adulthood and created a culture that spread to eight countries. We won India's first One Show and had so much fun that they merged David with another agency called Bates. But I did not agree with the merger, so I walked out. Mergers don't work for creative organizations. You can't mix milk with water and expect to get more milk! Collaborations and strategic alliances are better creativity models.

Colvyn Harris of JWT called me to be the joint-NCD of JWT along with Aggie. In the eight months I was there, we went on to win six new accounts like Nokia, Sony Bravia, Commomwealth Games, Bharti Walmart and AirTel Value Added Services. Things looked good. But I was feeling restless. The death of David was affecting me deeply!

So when the call came from Chris Thomas of BBDO to start something new, I knew this was it! You just know it. You've lived your whole life turning your body into an antenna. The body talks, you listen, you walk! So I walked! And I drove! My first three months at BBDO was spent driving around in a car. We had no office, just coffee shops!

Ajai Jhala and I became the founding management heads of BBDO India ' along with a bright set of creative, account management and planning guys - who would lead the company with us. We could sense that advertising, as we know it ,was evolving! Consumers were changing. The nature of ideas was becoming more interactive. It was time for brands to say, "This is what my brand is, and I want you to be part of the idea and I want you to express yourself through me.' That's how new young India was getting involved.

My long-time philosophy has been "Think like the navy, but deliver like the pirates.' Clients are more open to alternative thinking and new ideas than people in agencies are. They are driving change; they will force the ad industry to reinvent itself.

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Adgully: To all those who have been trying to achieve great heights in life and people call you non- creative don't be disheartened by the failures or lows, here is an example set by Josy Paul from which all of us can learn and grow in life. Cheers to JOSY