The reason why John Priess identifies with American Idol judge Simon Cowell boils down to one shared quality: honesty.

And along with this comes a straight-forwardness, a lets-not-beat-around-the-bush method of approach to the workplace. The five-year veteran of PlattForm Advertising has been taking the proverbial bull by the horns since he started as a Videographer, eventually moving his way up to Producer, Associate Director and finally his current position as Director of Video Production. And in case you’re still in doubt, his advice for success is as follows:

“If you’re not passionate about what you do, don’t bother.”

If that’s not honest, I don’t know what is. Priess is definitely passionate about what he does and says his favorite part of his job is “working with and challenging a great team of creative talent.” And Priess and his team have their work cut out for them – it’s not easy being video geniuses a minimum of 40+ hours a week.

“We try to keep our creative fresh and innovative,” says Priess. “I continue to challenge the team to take risks and go the extra mile as often as we can.”

But what about the man behind the position? What does Mr. John Priess do when he’s not leading his team to new creative heights? Well, then he’s living by his own motto: “Take time to enjoy the simple things.” For him, this includes watching sports (mainly hockey) and going to his girls’ sporting events. He says he doesn’t have time for much else. Hey, supporting your daughters and supporting your favorite grinders (yes, I looked up hockey slang) sound like full-time hobbies to me.

And personally, I hope Priess someday gets his wish of becoming famous worldwide for banning reality television shows. I think we could all do without Farmer Wants a Wife 2 or Rock of Love 3.

Of course, he might get an honest earful from Simon Cowell for putting American Idol out of business.