Seagulls and mimes share a place in this world – both are loathed. Now I’ll get to defending mimes another time, but for now let’s look at the seagull. Seagulls are monogamous, mate for life, rarely divorce, are nice to their offspring and truly value friendship. Yes they will eat your avocado and tomato panini if you leave your towel for a split second but that is only because they have excellent eyesight and good taste.

They are one of the few species of seabirds that can survive on drinking salt water. They are expert fliers, having mastered control of winds, thermals and dives. They have a highly developed communication system with sounds and movements which you may have noticed when two or more are battling for that morsel you are contemplating tossing from your car window.

What is most intriguing about seagulls is how creative they are at problem solving. How do you open clams and other hard shelled mollusks without a knife? Drop them on rocks from just the right height. Too high and someone might swoop in and retrieve your dinner. Too low and the shell won’t break. How do you teach your offspring to be kleptomaniacs? Demonstrate how you can steal another bird’s catch midair or what you can learn by observation. Somehow the seagull has figured out that the pelican needs to drain the water from its beak before swallowing. So the seagull waits for the pelican to make its catch and then grabs whatever it can before the pelican has finished draining.

The seagull is also the state bird of Utah. If not for the seagulls dealing with a plague of crickets the Mormons never would have been able to settle Salt Lake City. The feat is called, “The Miracle of the Gulls.” Now did the seagulls know that they were changing the fate of hundreds of thousands? Probably not. They just like to eat crickets.

Now before you write me off as nothing more than a gullophile, remember this. Think like a seagull. In business. In life. Always be on the lookout for opportunity. Use innovation to overcome unforeseen obstacles. And ignore those haters. They’re just jealous they can’t fly as high. With our without a panini.

I began by selling securities, winning a two-week trip to Europe for selling the most government backed mortgages, and have been selling ideas ever since. While at JWT I launched Listerine Pocketpaks and won the Unilever Caress business that, in turn, resulted in Unilever awarding the agency the Vaseline business. I convinced Nicole Miller to design a line for Wildaid. Traps, a television spot I did for Wildaid, was named one of the best spots on Ad Critic. The outdoor, print and television campaign I did for NYC Choppers resulted in the company being invited into the elite custom bike competition. I was part of the winning team for the JCPenney account being awarded to DDB, Chicago, Tanqueray and Eveready being award to JWT and Swatch being awarded to Weiss, Whitten & Partners. While at Chiat I launched the Barelythere lingerie line. The launch so far exceeded sales expectations in the first six months that the agency was awarded a substantial bonus. The creative was named best spot in Adweek. Additional award winning accounts I worked on include Absolut, Armani, Barnes & Noble, Bass, Bud, Business Week, DeBeers, Ferrari, General Mills, Guerlain, Lubriderm, Olay, Ralston, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, Unilever and Wonderbra.

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