Disappointment is a career choice

Welcome to a career of disappointment. During our internship we got our first glimpse into the client/agency dynamic. The assignment was to put together an ad that was an announcement of a big deal: a newsy headline and the different 'deals' outlined in boxes. Simple enough. We get it done and are quasi-proud that something we worked on will run in the New York Times. Until they send it off for approval by the client. The client fucks with it. Completely changes the headline to something they had before and now Mike is currently on his 8th revision of the 'boxes'. Boxes! How can four black straight lines cause such agony? Vertical, no wait, horizontal. Move the logo to the top, but not before you try it on the bottom...again. So the lesson is the majority of our careers will consist of wasted creativity (in the end, it's never wasteful, but it certainly feels that way). We spend vast amounts of energy coming up with something interesting, only to have the client's preconceived dirt boring version run. And this is an ad that no one cares about. The most terrifying thing we heard during this experience, said by our art director mentor, "Wait until it's something you really care about." We are masocist bastards.