Merits of a Meritocracy with JWT

Brent Choi stands at the front of JWT’s New York office, relaxed, coffee in hand. He is one of 11 people in the world who holds the Fast Company Innovation award, numerous Cannes Lions and CLIOs, and a heap of other awards. He mentions none of this, in fact, I stumbled on this information during routine research into the agency. Instead, he talks about the meritocracy of the Ad business, and the importance of taking initiative.

As the son of a convenience store owner, Choi’s humble beginnings as a copywriter saw him fired three times in four years during his first jobs. After reflecting on his time at these agencies, Choi began seeing a pattern in the way he was acting and the reasons he was being fired. “I wasn’t making myself indispensable” he says. “I wasn’t taking initiative, I wasn’t putting myself in front of decision makers.” Making the switch came with a lot of hard work, and a lot of going out on a limb. “I tried to get myself as many at bats as possible” he says “and I dedicated myself to outworking the guy next to me. There might be someone who could write a better tag line than me in three hours, but then he would stop, and then Id work for eight hours and come up with something better. “

“At the end of the day, this business is a meritocracy, and you have to earn your merits.”

Caden Bohn

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