When I was in grad school, I was obsessed with David Ogilvy.

At the same time, I was watching Mad Men, the show starring Jon Hamm about the advertising world.

People often said Ogilvy was a major inspiration behind the show. That idea fascinated me. Advertising wasn’t just selling. It was art.

So I read everything Ogilvy wrote.

When I graduated, I tried to turn that interest into a career. I applied for jobs at ad agencies. Every single application was rejected. At the time, it felt like a dead end. Looking back, it taught me something that stuck.

Ogilvy believed deeply in writing as a career skill. He put it bluntly:

“The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather [his agency]. People who think well, write well. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.”