Awards Shows

I started my career in TV, home of the Emmys. Lots of folks I know won them and it’s great that they got recognized for how good they were at their jobs. Of course, anyone whose ever entered a competition like that will tell you there are an awful lot of politics involved but nevertheless, the shiny award looks great in your office.
I used to call on ad agencies, and that business is home of the Clios, Effies, and a bunch of others. the media buyers didn’t win them – usually I’d see them in a creative’s office or on some account person’s shelf. They too got recognized for being good and having the scratch to afford the entry fees.
Our team at the NHL won a Webby one year. It was for business – how we ran the site and made money in a difficult industry – not for content, and that’s OK. Millions of readers told us we were doing well on the content side by coming back every month.
If you make movies, there are Oscars.  If your life is the theater, you have Tony’s.  Almost every industry has awards and fancy awards shows to go with them.  So what about the rest of us? What about all the teachers, parents, and cube-dwellers who work their butts off each and every day and don’t have anything shiny to put on a shelf?
Hopefully we all get the best award, the one you can’t buy or enter a competition to win, even though you might think you can. That’s the award called happiness.  You get to have the dinner every night, hopefully with the ones that love you and the photos on your wall and PC and in your brain are the trophys.

I’m with a bunch of my best friends in the world right now and I’m happy.  We have a trophy if you win our golf tournament, but I’ve never won it and probably won’t this year either.  That’s OK.  I’ve got the better award.  Do you?