Success Quote by David Ogilvy

Ogilvy packages a whole theory of power into three brisk imperatives: manufacture the myth, recruit the talent, then get out of the way. The first step is the most revealing. “Make yourself a reputation” isn’t the same as “be a genius.” In advertising, perception is the product; authority is a tool you wield to win clients, budgets, and attention long before the work proves itself. He’s admitting, with cool pragmatism, that creative industries run on narrative as much as on output.

The second line quietly redefines leadership as curatorship. “Partners” signals ego management: he’s not talking about obedient staff, but peers strong enough to challenge the room. It’s also a defensive move against the classic agency failure mode: the charismatic founder who becomes the bottleneck. Ogilvy, who built an empire on branding and persuasion, is effectively saying the best “creative director” is sometimes a casting director.

Then comes the punchline: “leave them.” It reads like humility, but it’s also strategy. Delegation isn’t altruism; it’s leverage. By removing himself, he preserves the genius brand (the myth stays uncontaminated by day-to-day compromises) while letting better specialists do the messy work of producing results. In the context of mid-century Madison Avenue, where agencies sold confidence as much as campaigns, this is less a self-help mantra than a playbook for institutionalizing charisma: build a legend, hire reality, and don’t stand between them.