George Clooney, Jamie Oliver, Oprah Winfrey – and my butterfly mind

How interesting to compare useless sluts like Paris Hilton with people like George Clooney.

He puts his fame to good use and is off to Sudan to try and see what is up with the elections being run by the murderous regime there. Besides being an exceptionally fine actor he is a good man – as far as I can see.

The same with Jamie Oliver, so successful that although he promotes for Sainsbury’s their greatest competitor Tesco feel they have to sell his products. He works hard trying to stop people digging their graves with their teeth and helping young people escape the results of our miserable educational system.

I don’t know much about Oprah Winfrey. She must find it impossible to keep her head amidst such constant adulation, but I have always thought anyone who rose from such dire poverty to such astounding success must be admirable. Anyhow, I’ve always been fascinated by her, maybe because I have a lot of African-American family connections.

I mention her today because James Hammond who I am doing the Branding event with just sent me something she said about mentoring – a word I hate.

“A mentor allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”

Isn’t that good?

What has that to do with my butterfly mind? Well, I toyed with mentoring a year or so ago and have been running a small group ever since.

Each time we meet they ask me what I am doing to promote the idea, but I’ve never got organised – I take on too many things at once. However many people claim they have succeeded with my help**, and I get kind messages most days, so maybe I should give it another go.

If the subject interests you, let me know. I see it as a very small Mastermind group – maximum ten.

In the meantime, I should tell you that within four days over 120 people have said they’re interested in the branding event – probably more than we can cope with. I’ll tell you more early in the week.

I had another two ideas yesterday, but I won’t bore you with them yet.

** Help takes strange forms. When I was in New York a while ago the worldwide head of OgilvyOne told his colleagues that my help when he was running the Toronto office mainly consisted of insulting him and eating expensive lunches. However, he did admit that it worked.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

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