For all you kids of the eighties, this epic scene in the movie BIG, starring Tom Hanks, probably made you wish that there really was a Zoltar machine that would grant you just one wish, and that wish would come true.
All I could think about was how cool it would be to just throw a couple of quarters in a machine and get the one thing that I wanted more than anything else. On a family trip many years ago, we stumbled upon one of these Zoltar machines. It wasn't nearly as cool as the real deal from the movie, but it had to suffice.
I still remember what I wished for. It came to me when I was digging through a box of mementos and discovered my Zoltar fortune card with a date written on it. 1989. I was about 9 years old at the time.
My wish? I wanted to be pretty. Now mind you, I was an ugly duck. Thick glasses, janky teeth, crazy hair. I was the epitome of nerd. Dorkus Maximus as I was so loving called by the class bully.
Now looking back at that wish so long ago, I realized, it came true. And thank goodness. But it didn't really happen until my later years in High School. Oh well, better late than never right?
But now that I am the ripe old age of 30, I wondered just what my wish would be this time around. If you had a Zoltar machine and a quarter, what would you wish for? How would it be different than when you were a kid?
My wish now would be to have my "dream" job. At first it was just a loose sort of wish, I wasn't certain what that dream job would be. Then, the more I thought about it, it is working for an ad agency that has a toy company for a client upon which I got to do the strategy and creative concepting in addition to overseeing the digital direction too. I know that if I were to go and get that client, I would be in a far better position to doing what I want with regard to my work.
From there, I thought even further and fleshed it out to one day working as a Marketing Manager for a toy company, much like Tom Hanks did in the movie BIG. Sure, I would have to go back to school at get a Master's degree (more than likely anyways) but I could get paid to work around toys, the ideasmiths who come up with them, and the children who love them (at oe point I was in education and still do love being around kids).
When I think of the piano scene in the movie BIG, I connected it to the fact that SOMEBODY actually gets PAID to have fun and make a client/company money marketing hours of endless imagination and enjoyment for kids. At that point, I was sold. I am a fun-loving, creative and terribly silly person. Heck, I go to toy stores on the regular just to see what they have for kids nowadays.
And yes, I still try things out and now that I am older, I think of the strategy which that company should use to make an impact. I also look at the product and find the ways in which they should improve it, to make it more kid friendly. Have you SEEN the new Transformers? They are quite complex compared to what I had back in the day and the options aren't nearly as cool as when I was growing up.
But looking further down the road...
Maybe, just maybe, that wish for a dream job is an agency that markets the silly and offbeat? Maybe that agency happens to get a toy company client. And maybe that agency assigns me to it. And maybe down the road I will one day work for that toy company, or, run one of my own. Who knows. the options are endless.
Wishing I am sure will help, but just knowing it will happen and never doubting that it will (much like the faith that I had that Zoltar would make sure I became somewhat pretty) is sure to have me standing in my office one day with an electronic light-up floor piano underneath my feet.
Sure it will take some hard work, but wishing is a small first step.
Time to go find that Zoltar machine...
Best,
Anne
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