To the new students — welcome!
You have entered the hallowed halls of a venerable and esteemed institution — the marcom blog.
Here, within these guilded digital pages, lie the collected (so far) wisdom, insight and hard-won battle scars of those who have gone before you.
The profession of ‘Communicator’ is something that will be both a blessing and a millstone around your neck.
A blessing because you will be directed to learn from the greats of this profession — those who posses the rare ability to turn hearts with their words; those blessed with the skill and good fortune to turn devasting losses into fantastic successes through a change of tactic; those who understand what goes on in the deepest hearts of men and who can bring that knowledge to bear for greater good.
A curse because every second devotee of Forest Gump and Chancey Gardener believes that they are also communicators, that ‘communicating’ is easy.
It isn’t. But you don’t need me to tell you that — after all, you would have sat through your fair share of execrable PowerPoint presentations by now, listened to enough public speakers to know that not everyone has the gifted touch of a Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. Not everyone can assemble words on a piece of paper as skilfully and gracefully as Kami Huyse or Andrea Weckerle, or with as much instant insight (more bang for your buck) as Allan Jenkins and Josh Hallett (and you are fortunate because Kami, Andrea, Allan and Josh all blog here, too!). If the knowledge, insight and wisdom of every single guest blogger here could be bottled and put aside for later use, you would have a collection worthy of Hogwarts and the Secret Library of Spells. All you have to do is ask them a question, they will reply. And they don’t bite (”…hard” as Austin Powers once said).
And now the opportunity to learn with an open heart and enquiring mind is before you. It is highly unlikely you will ever have an opportunity like this again — to tap into the minds of the guest contributors on this blog, who give of their time, hearts and minds freely and with an incredible willingness to share. Carpe Diem, as Robin Williams was once heard to whisper.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the heartbeats of former students who have discovered great joy, passion, fun and jaw-dropping moments of insight from being a fully-contributing part of this blog. Will yours be a heartbeat that students-to-come will hear? I hope so…
