My Biggest Lesson: Frith Dabkowski

With nearly two decades of experience in advertising and production, Frith built her expertise at prestigious agencies and studios such as Hecho Studios, BBH, 180LA, MAL\For Good, and Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

This isn’t a lesson I learned in a moment, a bolt of lightning, a pearl of wisdom; this is a realisation that grew over time. 

When I was in grad school (at UT - hook ‘em!) planning where I wanted to start my career, I dreamed of and pushed to work at the 'hot shops'; the trendy young upstarts winning all the awards or the well-established creative juggernauts who’d been winning those same awards for decades. 

And I managed it. I worked at some truly excellent agencies and studios over the years. Agencies of the Decade, Small Agencies of the Year, the ones that swept Cannes… and I loved it. But what I came to realise, probably about a decade in, was that it isn’t the accolades or the perks that I loved (although the 25 cent beers at Goodby, Silverstein + Partners were a cherished part of my early twenties). Nor was it the cool offices, or even the incredible work that I remember and cherish now. 

It was the people. 

The people who I spent Sunday afternoons with, the people who I had drinks after work with, the people who I now meet at the park on the weekend with our kids. It’s the people I invited to my wedding, it’s the people who I stood next to at theirs. Hell, it’s the person I married. 

That’s what matters, that’s why I work where I work. I spend five days a week talking to these people, problem-solving with these people, being inspired by these people. My biggest lesson - I will always want to do good work, but what I really want is to do it with good people.