To All The Sad Men Who Lament About What Medium Used to Be

How embarrassing…for you and frustrating for real male allies

Photo by Charles 🇵🇭 on Unsplash

Six years ago, I resigned from a job that had been slowly killing me. I was an equity partner in a digital agency in New York, and we grew the portfolio from $1M to $20M in nearly four years. I was one of the four partners principally responsible for the agency’s growth, having closed a succession of six-figure accounts with boldface F100 companies. I mentored dozens of brilliant men and women, who’ve gone on to break ranks at some of the most recognizable companies in the world.

I was proud of my work and what I had accomplished, but I was sick, literally, from working 16-hour days. Every week, I boarded a flight. Weeks passed and I barely saw daylight. I sent emails at all hours. I was somnambulant, headed toward a nervous breakdown because I was also working for a narcissistic sociopath who feigned allyship. Oh, he just loved women until they became threatening.

The business development lead at our holding company brought in an executive from a CPG giant. It was one of those meetings where our moxie, work, and growth had piqued her interest, and she wanted to meet the people behind the agency that had been making noise in New York. On paper, these meetings are informal, but make no mistake…