Before becoming a decades-long stable in hip-hop, R&B and pop music, Pharrell Williams was fired from three separate McDonald’s loctions. That didn’t stop the fast-food chain from calling on him when they needed a catchy jingle for their commercials.
“I thought it was ironic, and I thought it was very funny,” Williams, 51, said during an episode of First We Feast’s “Hot Ones” published in October. “They brought it to us and they asked us to make a song …. I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘Oh, I’ve got an idea for McDonald’s.'”
Originally, “I’m Lovin’ It” was originally developed by a German advertising agency called Heye & Partner. Then Williams and his former bandmate Chad Hugo were tapped to produce a new version. That version became the centerpiece of McDonald’s longest-running ad campaign.
Williams is often credited with making it a pop culture staple in the 2000s — alongside Justin Timberlake, who sang the tune and recorded a music video for it. The gig reportedly made Timberlake $6 million.
Williams, a 13-time Grammy winner, has stated that his shortcomings as a McDonald’s employee were mostly due to the fact that he wasn’t interested in the job.
“I was lazy for a reason, because I wasn’t inspired,” Williams told the Hollywood Reporter in September. “But when I got inspired, I’m now a workaholic, man.”
Beating ‘burnout by boredom’
Doing work you don’t enjoy can lead to decreased motivation, reduced productivity, poor mental health, stress and an overall lack of fulfillment in life. Being uninspired at work is known as “burnout by boredom,” according to Emily Ballesteros, a burnout management coach,.
“If you told a person who feels burned out by boredom, ‘your life is going to look exactly like this a year from now,’ they would have a full-on meltdown, because they are that unsatisfied,” Ballesteros told CNBC Make It in 2021.
Williams chased his music dreams after he and his friend were discovered at a high school talent show by music producer Teddy Riley in his hometown of Virginia Beach. Not everyone gets so lucky, but Williams said that shouldn’t deter people from finding ways to pursue their industry of choice.
“Think about something that you love to do, so much so that if you could do it for the rest of your life and never make one penny from it, you would still do it as long as your bills could get paid,” Williams told the Hollywood Reporter.
“Let’s say that’s football, but you’re not in shape for football or you might be too small, or you might be too young — is there a job that you could do that’s connected to it? Maybe you could be a coach? Could you be a sports therapist?”
“If you could figure out a way that you can do a job connected to something that you love, you’ll love showing up every day,” Williams added. “That’s the key.”
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