Remembering Ari.

I wanted to put some words down as a tribute to my friend Ari Weiss who recently passed away.

I first met Ari when we both worked at DDB. He had just been made Global Creative Director. We were pitching for a massive global piece of business. It was a pretty stressful situation. Flying in from around the world. Multiple rounds and presentations. Jet lag mornings. Lots of agencies trying to win. You get the picture.

When I first met Ari I remember wondering if he perspired. He reminded me of Roger Federer. Not only because of the white shoes. But you got this feeling he could get to the ball twice as quickly with half the effort. You know, you are playing really well but you still lose the set 6-2 and don’t really know how it happened.

So Ari was very talented and yes he had very high standards. However, he had another very distinct talent. He had the ability to make everybody feel equal and part of something. He made you want to be better in a gentle yet unrelenting way. Make no mistake, the work was going to be good but he wanted everybody to get there together. In a business that is often all about ego, that is a rare and beautiful quality. Ari didn’t have to be the front man as long as the band got to the right song. His humility made you focus on what mattered and it gave you a strange creative confidence.

I lived in New Zealand and Ari was in New York so we would talk a lot but only see each other a couple of times a year. And for some reason Ari and I would always go for long walks when we would meet up. I am pretty sure that wasn’t my idea because my knees are buggered. We went for walks all over the planet. San Francisco, Miami, Mumbai, Cannes and London. We would talk about everything but the thing I remember the most was how much Ari listened. Everything you said was considered always with humour and kindness. It created a quiet space where it felt you could solve any problem. I will miss those walks.

The last walk I went on with Ari tells you the most about him. We no longer worked for the same company. I went to New York on holiday with my family. I hadn’t seen Ari for a while and reached out to him to go for a walk. Now, he was leaving his global job and about to start his own agency. Stress. I am also sure his health wasn’t great. He had a family. He was busy. He didn’t have to do this. But he did. He gave me his time. Which today seems unbearably precious.

We walked and talked for two hours in Central Park. We found the quiet space again to solve the worlds problems and then took the photo above.

C.S Lewis once said humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. For me that was Ari. He balanced intelligence with humility. He always wanted quality. He only accepted excellence. But he used his humanity, integrity and his humour to get there.

In a word, Ari was a mensch.

And I will miss those walks very much. Rest in peace amigo.

My deepest condolences to Ari’s friends and family.