The MatƏƔƧ Calƒ of tƎe Arƙeƨ*le

I don’t do false humility.

Before recovery, I’d enjoyed a certain amount of career success. My job was an Executive Creative Director at big international advertising agencies across Australia and Asia. Advertising is the perfect industry for addicts. It runs on fear, ego and greed.

better way of getting clean. You can always tell an addict… but you can’t tell him much.

Having said that for all my grand international CEO suite and top tier creative experience, NOTHING has taught me more than sponsoring other men. Not managing a creative department at 30. Not even my MBA. Being a sponsor is a sacred duty.

The objective is to make people spend money they haven’t got, on stuff they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like.

It’s not the sponsor that gets the addict clean, it’s God. The raw materials for their recovery are their levels of honesty, open mindedness and honesty.

As a creative, being completely delusional is a professional bonus. It helps tremendously when creating perceptual differences between products that are identical.

And a little dab won’t do it.

They need to have a critical mass to get them showing up for stepwork. My job is to encourage through a program of attraction. They say if you want to get good at something fast, start teaching it. This is how sponsorship works. I seem to be unable to suggest things for sponsees to do unless I’m doing them myself. It is the easier softer way.

My character defects became powerful career assets. The killer combo in active addiction of low self esteem and an inflated ego propelled me to come up with more and more bigger ideas so my peers would tell me how brilliant I was. That external approval was an intoxicating drug in itself. Working across Asia Pacific, I became what locals say of most expats, “overpaid, oversexed and over here.”

Opinion alert: I think that nothing can boost an addict’s self-esteem more than doing esteemable acts. First and foremost of those is sponsorship. Sponsoring someone gives you the opportunity to have such a massive impact on their life, if they follow direction, that you can’t help but feel that you are a useful, helpful human being.

Alcohol and cocaine use was widespread in advertising – more than tolerated, even celebrated. As the top of the food chain in agency offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Singapore and Phnom Penh I thought I had it all, had done it all and knew it all. Anyone who said anything I didn’t like, I’d interrupt with “yes I know…” or “yes but…”

It’s also easier than it looks. Simply show up and take them through the step work whilst trying to show as much patience, kindness, tolerance and love as you can possibly muster.

THAT is the mating call of the arsehole.

Never heard it before? Then wait until you start sponsoring.

In my experience, many sponsees have an opinion on what you’re suggesting. Or a preference. Or an idea themselves. Or a

Sponsorship is not an optional extra. It’s step 12, tradition 5, a privilege and a duty. I

was lucky enough to receive the gift of recovery. I need to give it away to keep it.

The therapeutic value of one addict helping another is unrivalled. Sponsorship is the only magic bullet we have.

If you’ve never done it then you’re letting down yourself, your Higher Power and the fellowship.

Without it you will never experience the true power, majesty and freedom of the program.

Time to pull the trigger.

If alcoholism were a Karen who claims that interior design is her “passion”