Stan Richards

About Stan

• When he was growing up, his mother encouraged his creative side by convincing him that he was one of the world's great artists.
• This led him to pursue graphic design at the Philadelphia Museum School, then at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
• At 22, he was hired by the largest advertising company in Dallas, and started earning a lavish salary.
• He had all the money he could ever want-he bought a brand new Porsche with cash-but he hated his job.
• After he quit, he started freelancing, which gave him much more joy, but made him essentially no salary.
• However, he says that making next to nothing gave him a suit of armor; living in near-poverty showed him that he could get through hard times.
• In 1976, he started his own ad agency, The Richards Group, now the largest individually owned branding company in the country.
• Says in advertising, ideas don't come as "lightning strikes," as you might think; you have to put in hard work, but that makes it more satisfying in the end.