Let’s hear it for “the Lonely Man”

Love this rousing 1967 retirement speech by adman Leo Burnett: http://bit.ly/xDnwpt

Susan Cain, author of QUIET: The Power of Introverts has gotten a lot of attention for her recent article in the Times on groupthink. This particular section of Leo Burnett’s speech (the background music and crowd noise make me think of Mad Men) resonates with the thesis of her essay:

“When you lose your respect for the lonely man, the man at his typewriter, or his drawing board, or behind his camera, or just scribbling notes with one of our big black pencils, or working all night on a media plan….When you forget that the lonely man—and thank god for him—has made the agency we have possible…. When you forget he’s the man who, because he is reaching harder, sometimes actually gets hold of one of those hot, unreachable stars…. That, boys and girls, is when I shall insist you take my name off the door.”