ne would assume that the most inspiring stories would be those behind people who have reached the pinnacles of success. But as Oprah Winfrey says, everyone has a story. Sample Manish Patel, copywriter, Publicis Ambience, who has just won the first metal for his agency at the recently concluded 54th Cannes Lion International Advertising festival � a silver lion in the Radio category for client Bullzi Placement Consultants. Nothing remarkable about that, till you hear that 25 year-old Patel has been in his present profile only for a year, having joined the agency seven years ago as a peon.

Patel joined Publicis Ambience, then Ambience d'Arcy, when he was barely 18 years old. He was unable to complete his graduation since his family was facing financial problems. He did the usual flunky work - fetching files, making tea and scanning layouts and images. For eight months, he worked in the same profile, but was soon made the library in-charge, where he would read books on advertising. But it wasn't as if his creative juices started flowing the minute he started reading those books. Says Patel, "I would look in wonder at people who could do magic on the page and realised I wanted to learn it all. I admired their thought process, and wanted to think the same way." ... more