3. Ambition Addiction

—Bill Reihl (Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide)

At a young age, Bill Reihl learned something that is the whole point of this book: Whether or not you work for yourself, the drive and leadership of entrepreneurs can be applied to a career in the corporate world. Entrepreneurs are driven by a lot of things, and one of the biggest drives is ambition. And Bill freely admits to having an ambition addiction: "Instead of thinking of being a millionaire, I set achievable goals, enjoy the triumph of reaching them, feed off them, and set new ones."

Classically hip, light-hearted, and adaptable to any occasion, Bill is a fantastic example for this book; he didn't envision starting his own business, but he did dream of extraordinary success. He can even put his finger on the exact moment he got hooked by the ambition to succeed: at a high-school summer job working at a local marina on the Chesapeake Bay. Bill worked hard and got himself promoted to dock master, which meant he managed dock traffic—a job that had him supervising dockhands twice his age. Bill remembers barking out orders such as, "Hey Jimmy, there's a 35-foot sloop coming into dock number four. Put him in slip number 52." Even though it was a lot of responsibility for a teenager, Bill thrived on it. "I was bitten by the bug," he recalls. "I wanted to achieve, I wanted to succeed. I thought, 'I got here on my own, I earned this.' Now I'm addicted to that feeling."

Bill reminds us that we all have goals we have achieved along the way. And it's vital that we remember to use any triumph, even the small ones, to prop up our courage and take on the next hurdle, and the next.

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

—Vincent Van Gogh

Rising up from small-town roots to the position of executive vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations took a huge amount of ambition and courage. Public relations is such a competitive field, and PR people are a dime a dozen (very much like my field, financial planning), so it can be difficult to rise into upper management. Bill says he was able to quickly rise through the ranks, sometimes leapfrogging a few steps, thanks to the drive he'd absorbed growing up surrounded by people with an entrepreneurial spirit. His mother, a huge supporting force in his life, has always worked and runs her own occupational therapy practice, his father runs a marina, his uncles have fishing boat fleets, one aunt was president of the local bank, another aunt has her own insurance agency, and his grandfather told stories of running the family farm and other businesses and investments on the side to provide for their large family. They were hard-working, well-respected people who had high goals for themselves and a reputation for success in the small town where the family had lived for generations. And when he moved away to the big city, Bill took with him the ambition to succeed. It goes to show how important it is to believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who are good examples.

"It's not about praise," Bill says. "It's about personal challenge." For instance, Bill says he looks down the road 5 or 10 years to figure out where he wants to be—and how his current job will get him there. But while he fantasizes about where he wants to be, he doesn't forget about the day at hand. "I get an old-fashioned satisfaction of a job well-done and a hard day's work," Bill says.

And no matter how menial it may seem, every job has something to teach. Bill's first job at age 13 was a summer job cleaning up at a gas station. Hanging around the mechanics while he swept the floors, Bill learned things he had no clue about, such as how to change car tires and oil. "From that moment on," he says, "I remember saying, 'Each one of the jobs I'm going to have is going to be valuable for me.'"

When it came time to go to college and pick a career, Bill hit the ground running.

Starting from Scratch

First, Bill had to figure out what he was going to succeed at. "I knew I wasn't the smartest guy in the room, or the biggest guy," Bill says. "I was gonna have to win it some other way." As a B-plus, A-minus high-school student, Bill wasn't the valedictorian of his class, but he was class president for all 4 years. So as graduation came around, Bill made some ambitious choices. "I made the brave decision, at the time, to really challenge myself." He would attend an out-of-state private college in Washington, D.C., instead of the in-state Maryland school offering him a full scholarship, and he would work to pay his own way and not burden his parents.

At American University, Bill asked for permission to move into the dorm early so he could "get in the groove of work before school started." He had plenty of part-time jobs—but he always set his sights on better paying jobs than the typical college student jobs, such as waiting tables and painting houses (two of my college jobs). For instance, one of his jobs was as a part-time marketing manager for a real-estate development firm. As always, he found a way to talk to the person doing the hiring, explain his skills, and impress him as someone who could handle the responsibility.

Finally, in his senior year, Bill fit in a full-time job around his class schedule. He would take an early morning class, get out by 8:45 a.m., work all day, then go to another class or two in the evening. The job was as public relations assistant for the American Society for Engineering Education, a professional association that paid him about $18,000. It was a nice little entry-level job because the public affairs person was busy monitoring Congressional committees and let Bill do much of the PR work. Here he was, just 20 years old, and he was sitting in a cubicle writing press releases, talking to journalists, and scrambling to finish schoolwork in his spare moments. "I didn't sleep that much," Bill says. "I was in a fraternity but not very active in it, dated, had friends, and would drive to see family on the weekends. I was always a good schedule manager. I like to work hard and play hard."

As graduation came around, Bill decided to build a PR career. It seemed like a great career where he could fuel his creative side, use his gift of gab, and climb the corporate ladder. Although he had a passing interest in politics, he saw people working in political jobs and didn't like the slow progress. "I saw people work 6 months on something, then it falls apart at the end," Bill says. "I wanted to be in a job where things actually get done! I'm an ambition junkie, and in politics, things weren't moving fast enough." And the place to be for PR, he figured, was New York City: "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere."

Even though he was a little scared in the back of his mind, on the surface Bill was confident and full of moxie. That's because he'd fueled his ambition with a string of successes throughout high school and college. Whenever he feared the big challenges ahead, he would remember how he'd reached all of his goals in high school and college. So he sat down with the New York Times want ads and found an ad for Kahn Communications Group, a small PR firm with an opening for an account executive—a position one step above entry level. He sent his resume along with a letter explaining that he already had some work experience—and he added, "I'm hungry and ambitious."

Underestimating Obstacles

Human resources people usually weed out job applicants whose resumes don't exactly fit, but Bill's job experience caught the hiring manager's attention, and he got a telephone interview, where he was asked, "Why should I hire you as an account executive?" Bill explained he had plenty of PR work experience already in college—he wasn't the typical inexperienced college graduate. And to follow up, Bill set out with his own direct-mail campaign, sending one or two postcards each week to his interviewer. For instance, one of the postcards showed a black and white photo of President John F. Kennedy and on the back Bill wrote, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what I can do for the Kahn Communications Group."

It worked: Bill got an in-person interview in New York City. At the interview, the guy Bill had been hammering with mail had the series of postcards laid out on his desk. The company wanted to hire him, but the problem was they needed someone immediately, and it was March, still 2 months before graduation. Bill sent a follow-up letter with the phrase, "56 days until I can be there," written in huge letters. He got the job.

It was a whirlwind beginning, with plenty of obstacles to overcome—and he overcame each of them in stride. Early Sunday afternoon, after graduation ceremonies, Bill had brunch with his family and roommate, packed up his Honda Civic wagon, and drove to New York City to arrive by nightfall. Monday morning he started his job. That first day he showed up bright eyed, with a mod haircut and a skinny tie. "Some big lumbering guy comes in, throws a press release and media list on my desk and says, 'I hear you're the new hotshot. Pitch this, get three hits, and come talk to me.'" So Bill started cold-calling journalists, looking to get some executive interviewed by three media outlets. "It was brutal. People curse you out, slam down the phone," Bill recalls. Somehow he got three interviews lined up that day. But, just as he had learned how to fix cars at his first job as a teenager, he was eager to learn more. First, he was going to research and study his client list so he understood the stories in the press releases better; he would learn the deadline days for each of the media outlets; and he would read newspapers and magazines to figure out which stories appealed to which publications. It was a crash course in his new job, but he could learn on his feet.

"I quickly carved out a niche as someone who was willing to take on any challenge," Bill says. "I was a voracious reader; I understood media." That made him good at media relations because he understood what each publication wanted. For example, a snarky, sensational story would appeal to the New York Post, whereas the more highbrow pitches would go to the New York Times.

The biggest challenge was a client nobody wanted: the American Telemarketing Association. "Who wanted to represent the telemarketers of the country?" Bill says. "At the time, before the national 'do not call' list, telemarketing was at the height of its unpopularity." It was like being a spokesman for assault weapon owners after the Columbine high school tragedy. Those were the days of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry tells a telemarketer he's busy, asks for his home number, and says, "I'll call you back around dinner. I can't do that? Now you know how I feel!" Still, Bill took on the challenge, and at age 24 became chief spokesman for the American Telemarketing Association. His name appeared on press releases, and he was quoted in major publications. "It was a thrill for me to do that," he recalls.

Shortly after Bill started at Kahn Communications, it was bought out by Ruder Finn, a mid-sized, independent public relations firm headquartered in New York with domestic and international clients. Suddenly he went from working for a 30-person company with one office to a large company with several hundred people. Bing, another challenge, and Bill was ready, "I was in the groove, really jamming."

Building Momentum—Daringly

After a couple of years, Bill got a call from a mid-sized boutique firm, DeVries Public Relations, which then specialized in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle accounts. "I remember thinking to myself, 'I don't know fashion or beauty, it's not me,'" he recalls. "Then the light goes off in my head: 'a challenge, let's go for it.' So I jumped and went for it."

Moving up to senior account manager wasn't easy at first. For one thing, at DeVries he encountered a boss who was a genius but notoriously difficult and challenging. And for another thing, the clients were bigger and more demanding. But he kept a smile on his face and worked hard every day, adopting the mantra, "Fake it 'til you make it." And, eventually, Bill found a mentor in that same challenging but brilliant boss and made a name for himself. His shining moment was when he was just 26 years old and was given the job of promoting the Fairmont Hotel chain, which was taking over a historic hotel in Boston and restoring it to its former glory. Bill worked hard to set up a PR blitz in Boston for Fairmont Hotel CEO Robert Small. Bill coached Small and had him meet with top editors of nearly every publication in Boston. "I nailed it," he recalls. He got the interviews and "hand held" the CEO, all the while sitting in the presidential suite of the hotel alongside a bunch of 50-year-old guys at the top of their industries. "Here I was 26. I was holding my own," he recalls. "I'm going to celebrate this, enjoy this."

Once again Bill met an ambitious goal. It's almost like he dared himself to achieve things that were supposed to be over his head.

Those years at DeVries were like finishing school for Bill. He went to all the best parties in New York, stocked his closet with tasteful gray suits, and used his gift of gab to network for his clients. And even with all the glitz, he held onto his skill of being able to talk to all kinds of people in any setting. "I can enjoy just about everything," Bill says. "I can go play golf and talk about the stock market, go whitewater rafting, or attend a seminar on Winston Churchill." This works for him in his personal life as well as his professional life. In public relations, every single client has to have an interesting story. "If I have a wide experience, it's easier for me to uncover these nuggets that make a good story."

His wide-ranging experiences also came in handy at DeVries when some clients turned out to be tough customers. In particular, there was a client who would sit down and pound on the table in meetings, which really freaked out some of the PR people, but not Bill: "I just leaned over and said 'We got it. We hear what you're saying.'" Pounding the table for emphasis was just "how they talked," Bill says, as he laughs about the memorable meeting. "They weren't going to hit us!"

With his small-town background and experience in all kinds of life situations, Bill could relate to a lot of different kinds of people—whether it's a CEO, a journalist, or client. Bill says he "could go talk to bankers, lawyers, or acrobats."

Taking the Next Leap

There comes a time when an ambition addict has to stop and take stock. Because, really, there will always be another higher step in one's career—no one ever reaches the top. What's great about Bill is that in his 30s, when he was at the top of his game, he took the chance to slow down and take stock of what he wanted, not just what his career demanded. It happened after his next promotion, when he was recruited by BSMG Worldwide, a big multinational company. "I'm being called up to the show now," Bill thought. He would be representing bigger companies with products that were household names, such as Schick razors and Arm & Hammer baking soda. The challenge was to take what he learned promoting cool, high-end companies and apply it to companies that made everyday consumer goods. The time was the prosperous 1990s, when companies had lots of cash to spend on big publicity stunts, and Bill knew how to handle these from his Fairmont Hotels experience.

Yet Bill noticed he was working too hard. "I would push myself, get exhausted," recalls Bill, who learned to take off Sundays, lock himself in his apartment, and "be lazy for a day."

One day, as he took stock of his life, he saw that he wanted something more than New York could offer. "I love New York. It's good to me; it's good for my career," Bill says. "But at 30 years old I was a vice president and still living in a walk-up apartment. I wanted a better quality of life. I wanted more trees, maybe a yard. I told myself, 'You've worked hard. Let's enjoy some of this.' I started to want more than working 15 hours a day."

It was 1999, and Bill's plan was to wind down the year and take some time off to look around the country for a place with a big-city feel but a more laid-back pace. He found the perfect exit strategy in a dot-com, OnlineRetailPartners.com, a company that took brick and mortar retailers online. For 8 months he split his time between the startup and his relocation search. The problem he faced as he talked to different PR firms was that they saw his New York experience and wanted him to work in their New York offices. But he persisted and looked for a job that would keep his New York–level salary and responsibility, and he found it at the Atlanta, Georgia, office of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide.

At Edelman, his main job was to be a link between the Atlanta and New York offices. He stayed on happily for 5 years. Then, in 2005, he found an opportunity to do global PR for big-name brands at the Atlanta office of Ogilvy, a top-ten agency with more than 60 offices worldwide. Finally, Bill thinks he has found a place that can contain his ambition. That's because as executive vice president, he works across disciplines, developing strategy and creativity, handling new business development domestically and internationally, and managing teams in multiple locations. He works with advertising, media buying, promotions, online—you name it—as well as with partner companies across the parent company (WPP) network. "I have a feeling that I can stay in the company and keep my entrepreneurial spirit," he says. "And I can keep climbing up." Who knows, maybe he's the future CEO of Ogilvy. I wouldn't put it past him.

Whatever happens, Bill's ambition is sure to take him to some exciting—and fulfilling—places. His secret is not to be intimidated from pursuing his ambitions. For instance, Bill recently struck up a conversation about art with a big wig in the art museum world. Now, many of us might feel a little worried that we'd say something stupid if we tried to talk shop with someone holding a doctorate in art history. But even though he says his art history knowledge is "about a mile wide and an inch deep," Bill put himself out there and took a risk. "We ended up having a great conversation. I knew just enough to perk up his ears," Bill says. "Now we're talking about representing some major players in the art world." Making new connections like that is all part of the thrill for Bill. When we let our ambitions guide us, the sky is the limit. So sit back and imagine the possibilities. You never know where your ambitions will take you.