Jay Chiat’s career was shaped by his early experiences working alongside his father in a wide variety of fields. Sam Chiat instilled in his son the belief that hard work was necessary in life. (Stabiner, 1993, p. 24.) In the years following the Great Depression, Sam Chiat moved his family up and down the East Coast working as a laundry delivery driver, restaurateur, dry-cleaner, and ultimately a Miami souvenir shop clerk. (p. 24.) These early hardships taught Chiat two valuable lessons; first, hard work is crucial to attaining ultimate success, and second, never be satisfied with goals already attained.

Like many individuals who made their careers in the business of advertising, Jay Chiat literally stumbled into the profession. After graduating from Rutgers University in 1953, he went to work as an NBC tour guide before finally entering the Air Force. When he was asked about his previous work experience, Chiat responded that he was in broadcasting. (p, 24.) Thus, a former tour guide landed the position of information officer of Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento, California.

After his tour of duty was completed, Chiat was awarded a job as a copywriter at the Leland Oliver Company. While at the agency, Chiat worked on a fly-fishing account whose spokesperson was world-champion fisherman John Diekman. Karen Stabiner wrote in her 1993 tome about Chiat/Day, Inventing Desire, that it was his experience working with Dieckman that propelled Chiat to form his own agency. Chiat was enamored with the man’s success, even though it was in an extremely specialized field, and wanted to attain a similar kind of achievement.

The climate seemed perfect for Chiat to form his own advertising agency. Southern California was a place without established advertising firms. Therefore there was little competition to get in the way of dominating the West Coast advertising industry. When Chiat was told he would have to give up his office to make room for a new executive at Leland Oliver Company, he quit and started his own agency, Jay Chiat & Associates. (p. 25.)