Before I was an adman, I dropped out of college to play drums with The Watson Brothers, a one hit wonder in Bangladesh (link opens to a music video of that one hit). I had more than two accoutrements of minor stardom. I wore shorts to dinner parties. Fans (unfortunately male) sent us naked pictures. For two seasons, I even anchored a music-themed TV show: Rocklink, which had the lowest prime time viewership in 2005.

My last job was at Bitopi Leo Burnett, a small creative-driven shop in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is also where I had my first job. I originally quit Bitopi to be a radio producer at Radio Foorti, Bangladesh’s first (and most popular) FM station. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn’t advertising. So I begged my old boss Awrup to take me back, burned the compromising photos, and worked on brands such as Djuice, Sensation Condoms, Kazi & Kazi Tea and Marlboro. Things went great until I almost died of typhoid and malaria.

But in truth, the disease was a macguffin. It was an excuse to evaluate my life, but an evaluation was due anyway.

I realized that life is too short to waste. Working in an industry where I’m close friends with creative heads at the major agencies seemed to be too easy, almost a waste of my life. I met some brilliant people who taught me many things. I miss some of them every day. And there is much to love about Bangladesh. The monsoon. The food. The incredibly charming fact that print is still the primary advertising medium. But I wanted bigger challenges. I have a big ego, and I want to make ads in the world’s biggest market.

I was pivoting, and I had two options: I could remain in Bangladesh as a genius misfit and idiot martyr. I could smoke cigarettes and consult at friends’ agencies. Or I could return to America, finish college, go to graduate school. Stop the drink and drugs and cigarettes. Well, the drugs and cigarettes.

Get healthy. Grow up. Be a man. Write a blog, cause that’s what real men do.

This is that blog.