Today’s Friday Philosophy comes from David Ogilvy.

I’ve been reading The King of Madison Avenue, the first ever biography of Ogilvy written by Kenneth Roman. Roman is the former Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, Ogilvy was his boss.  It’s a very well done book and I continually pick up nuggets as I’m reading so I’ve kept a journal close by to write down the epiphanies that apply to my own business.

One of my favorite stories Roman tells in the book is about today’s quote.  The story goes that Ogilvy once left Russian matryoshka dolls “which directors found at their places at a board meeting. Opening the painted nesting dolls, each smaller than the one before, every director found the same message typed on a piece of paper inside the tiniest doll:

‘If we hire people who are smaller than we are, we will become a company of dwarfs. If we hire people who are larger than we are, we’ll become a company of giants.’”

-David Ogilvy

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