…keep in mind the following lines from a Rudyard Kipling poem The “Mary Gloster”,

They copied all they could follow,

but they couldn’t copy my mind,

And I left ’em sweating and stealing

a year and a half behind.

The poem is about the shipping magnate Sir Anthony Gloster on his deathbed narrating his life for his son.

I was reading David Ogilvy’s Confessions of an Advertising Man when I came across the above quote. The book is a real gem – people don’t write like that anymore. David’s belief in his own abilities (no, his own genius) is rather disconcerting at first, but as the book wears on, it gets endearing. Recommended.