Saying goodbye, saying thank you

Spend enough time on this platform, and you can come away with the view that most people think – or at least like to project – that their successes in their careers are pretty much all down to them.

Which is true, to an extent. But that does, of course, tend to overlook the others who have helped us to get where we are. In small, big, unexpected ways.

A meeting taken. A coffee had. A brief given. A call returned. A job given. “Let’s give it a go.”

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of Matt Morley-Brown. He was the person who gave me my first job in Adland, back in 2007, which was – is – many lifetimes ago now. If you had told me then what was to follow from that, professionally and otherwise, I wouldn’t have believed you. I might have wished for it. But I wouldn’t have believed it.

Matt was one of life’s enthusiasts. Didn’t matter what crossed his radar – jazz, surfing, rugby – he loved it. Loved it such a way that he swept you up into something that meant you would end up being as fired up about it too.

He was like that with copy. Always wanting it to be better. Restlessly trying to improve every headline, every sentence, every para. Sometimes, as a deadline flew by, it got deeper into the evening, you might think, aw man can we let it go? Generally he was always right – enthusiasts tend to be. They tend to see brilliance, and how to get to it, before you do.

Of the six or so years I spent working with him, mostly what sticks out is the first time I met him: a Monday night on the creative floor of the Archibald Ingall Stretton office on Berners Street. I was nervous as fuck. He barrelled back into the office from wherever he had been, and with a massive grin said “Pub?” That still probably is the best interview I’ve ever done. Can I remember a word of what we said? Of course not. But that hour changed my life.

Mostly I’m writing this to publicly say what I didn’t say privately to him, and am now kicking myself for. Thank you. Thank you for taking the chance. Thank you for holding the door open.

If you have someone in your career – you life – like that, please, make sure you say it to them. Today preferably. Now is even better. It is always later than you think. RIP Matt.