How to Make an Incredible Impression During Your Most Vulnerable Moment

Thirty-nine years ago I had taken a weekend job as a police
reporter for the Colorado Springs Free Press, a daily
newspaper competitor to the long-established Colorado
Springs Gazette. The Free Press was a morning paper and the
Gazette an afternoon paper in Colorado in 1968.

Early one Saturday night an elderly man who looked like my
grandfather came rushing into the newsroom, making a
beeline path to my desk.

"I have a problem and I need help," he said quickly. "What
can I do?" I replied, kicking myself for volunteering. I
was new to the police scene and really had not acclimated
myself to the routine. After glancing around, I became
aware that he was headed my way because I was the only
choice at that moment.

"Do you know anything about producing a sports section?" he
asked.

Not knowing what I might be getting into, I slowly
answered, "I played some sports in high school."

Then he shared his situation: "I have been somewhat
critical of my sports editor in recent weeks, and when I
arrived to work this afternoon, I found out that he had up
and quit, walking out in a huff. Because of the loyalty of
his staff, they all walked out with him in a show of
solidarity. I need to put out the sports section tonight
and I need your help."

Being older, more experienced and more mature, I now
realize I kind of felt like the President was calling, and
so I stuck my neck out by agreeing to help.

My needy "grandfather" figure turned out to be the
publisher of the newspaper. He quickly ushered me into the
wire room, and began a two-minute drill on what I would
have to do in taking stories off of the Associated Press
and United Press International news wires. The first thing
you learn is the stories are continuous on the multiple
wires.

Then he took me to the sports department and began
explaining how we needed to choose stories to run, edit
copy, layout news pages, write headlines, choose pictures
to crop and run, write photo captions, answer phone calls
from stringers in the field, take dictation over the phone,
etc. There were formerly several support staffers that did
these tasks daily with the sports editor in command.

It became obvious to me that the publisher had not done
squat in producing a daily sports section—or any
section of the paper—in years. We started sending
copy and photos down to production so typesetters could get
cranking out copy. There was some real trauma at times,
but we managed to get the job done.

Remember that 38 years ago, there was no Internet, no
transferring of files, no software programs to generate
area layout, and no automatic plating process. Everything
was done by hand with IBM Selectric typewriters, and over
the phone.

At the end of the night, the publisher was very grateful
and invited me back to join him in the next night's
production. Long story short, I told him I would do it and
call him if I needed any help. That made him even more
grateful. I did not call him the next night and produced as
good a sports section as they had ever done.

What happened after that was incredible. The publisher
spent all of his time walking around the newsroom for the
next few days and telling anyone that would listen that "he
had been in the news business for more than 40 years and
had never, ever, seen a kid catch on to the business as
quickly as this Bagley kid."

Within a week, I was the new sports editor of the Colorado
Springs Free Press, a daily newspaper. I quickly hired a
bunch of my friends and contacts, and spent my immediate
future covering the Denver Broncos in the NFL and the Air
Force Academy in the NCAA.

How did it happen that I could make such an incredible
impression in my most vulnerable moment? Here is how:

When the publisher asked me if I knew anything about
putting out a newspaper section, I did not tell him that I:

1) Was an award-winning sports editor for The Arrowhead, my
school newspaper at Flint Central High School in Flint (MI).

2) Was a Michigan State University graduate with a Bachelor
of Arts Degree in Journalism.

3) Was a weekly newspaper editor prior to arriving in
Colorado Springs.

4) Knew how to handle wire copy, write stories, take and
develop pictures, layout pages, write headlines and photo
captions, and do everything else that needed to be done.

5) Was an outstanding prep runner in high school, had
played baseball, basketball, football and hockey in my
youth, and was also on the swim team in high school.

Why did I do this? Easy, if I shot off my mouth about what
I knew and then screwed up, I would never regain the
publisher's confidence in my abilities. By wisely acting
normal but giving the impression that I had fallen off of a
hayseed wagon, anything I did was impressive to a man with
an urgent need.

The moral to this real life, true story is: Never be too
quick to tell people what you know or can do, and never be
too slow to figure out when opportunity is knocking. It is
called street smarts and it is one way that successful
people get ahead in life.

>From potential disaster, I would go on to be editor or
managing editor of 6 weeklies, an investigative reporter
for a daily, managing editor of a daily and own and operate
a community publishing company.

Another very important lesson in life that I learned from
this experience was, when a person has a need, do not shoot
off your face about what you know, simply shut up and get
about the business of helping the person at THEIR point of
need, not yours. Life has a way of rewarding people who
tend to be more other-centered than self-centered.

Take your eye off of yourself and put it on someone else,
and life will naturally send its blessings your way.

(Editor's Note: After I left the Free Press, it was
apparently acquired by the Sun Newspaper chain and became a
liberal leaning news product in competition with the more
conservative Gazette-Telegraph. In the 1980s it apparently
changed hands again when the Freedom Newspaper chain, owner
of the Gazette-Telegraph, bought it and eliminated its only
competition by immediately firing the staff and shutting it
down.)

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Read my 4-part series on Job Interviews: "It Is Not What
You Say, But How You Say It That Counts ' Part 1", "How to
Answer When Asked Your Strengths and Weaknesses ' Part 2",
"How to Handle Job References ' Part 3" and "What Do
Employers Really Want When Hiring? ' Part 4".
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http://www.edbagleyblog.com
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