I love what Robert has been achieving with students these last two years that I have been associated with the Marcom blog.
My hat goes off to him for the passion and drive and down-right enthusiasm he has for this PR new-world that so many of his peers seem to have wanted to ignore in the hope it will all go away.
But taking for granted that Robert is due for some sort of knighthood (were he to be British — which in the South is highly unlikely! {grin} ) the question remains — What the F are YOU going to do with all the knowledge that Robert and we contributors (including Dee) are sharing with you?
As far as I see, you have a few choices:
- Ignore it
- Ignore it and join a PR/Marketing/Ad company that ignores it
- Ignore it and join a PR/Marketing/Ad company that does ‘get it’ and try and pass yourself off as knowledgeable
- Join in the very scary, very risky ‘game’ of entering into conversation with us ol’ hoary buggers, knowing that you will unlikely ever reach the audience/subscriber numbers we have (because we were ‘first in, best dressed’)
- Guesstimate where the ‘next big thing’ for PR/Marcomms is going to be and attempt to get there before your peers, so as to garner the kudos and the audience numbers folks like Andrea, Allan, Josh, Neville et al have deservedly earned
- Change your degree and/or focus and leave the PR/Marcomms field for higher-earning, higher-kudos, higher-respected fields of academic and income-related endeavour.
The hardest route is to stay where you are, try and understand what you can from the pearls of wisdom that drop from Robert’s lips, and attempt to apply it as a new, fresh-faced, “I know bugger all” graduate or intern amongst those grey, wizened, scary ol’ farts who comprise your employers and their employees.
It can be done — Robert has scores of names of those who have ‘cut the mustard’ and ‘made the grade’ and who, in the process, have earned the respect of us hoary ol’ codgers.
So what of YOU?
Do you have what it takes?
Can you ‘cut the mustard’? Really?
Go on… prove it. Blog and email us and tell us you have blogged.
Don’t just hide behind Robert’s safe blogging walls… blog and jump into our world and comment on our blogs (as some of you have already courageously and admirably done) and let us trumpet YOU to our audiences as someone who does have something to say and is worth taking seriously.
A big challenge? Scary?
Of course it is. That’s the point. Life is scary. Business is scary. Dating is scary. Marriage is scary. Child rearing is scary. Life is scary. Kissing someone is scary. Blogging something is scary. Driving a car is scary. Catching a bus is scary. Getting into a taxi on your own (especially if you are a young woman in Adelaide at the moment) is scary. Life is scary.
Life is about taking risks, failing, falling flat on your face, picking yourself up out of the dust and brushing it off and trying again.
One of Australia’s greatest living columnists is Phillip Adams:
“A lot of successful people are risk-takers. Unless you are willing to do that… to have a go, fail miserably, and have another go, success won’t happen”
We won’t laugh at you. But we will applaud you if you take the risk, step out from behind Robert’s safe walls and enter into our conversations.
We will also take our hats (and perhaps even more) off to you if, like others before you, you strive to make a difference in how PR is seen, practised, managed, mediated, negotiated and acknowledged in the world. It can be done, it has been done (by Robert’s students, too).
Now it’s up to you. Do you have the intestinal fortitude (aka ‘guts’) to challenge those older and supposedly wiser than you?
I pray to a God who loves us all dearly that you do. Because if you attempt, fail, dust yourself off and try again you WILL make a difference — trust me; just ask any of us hoary ol’ buggers that make up the “brains trust” (ha ha!) of this Marcom blog and we’ll confirm it.
It’s Spring; it’s Easter. Go and celebrate your life and all that is in front of you (that which you see and that which you don’t) and come back after Easter renewed, refreshed and revitalised. And never forget to share with us your triumphs and your tragedies — that is what life is made of and it is those things (all of them) that turn you from student into adult, and which we adore and celebrate and cherish and encourage.
Oh, and don’t post photos of your naked bums on MySpace — they will come back to haunt you! {grin}
Powered by Zoundry
