On his Personal
Branding Blog, Dan Schawbel interviewed Jamie Malanowski, former editor for
Playboy. He asked Malanowski what tips he wold give to someone first starting
out in writing or journalism. He said:
“When I started out, I sought advice from two very fine journalists, John Leo (then of Time) and Nick Pileggi (then of New York magazine), and each of them, unknown to the other, gave me identical advice:
‘Write as much as you can, and go to as
many parties as possible.’
Both tips turned out to be amazingly
useful. To those I’ll add this: be aggressive. No editor in whole wide world
has ever woken up and thought, “Let me see what shy, hidden talent I can
uncover today.” It’s a put-yourself-forward business, one in which people value
enterprise, energy and persistence in a young person above something vague and
evanescent as talent.”
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In my scriptwriting career, I have emphasized the former and pretty much ignored the parties (due to party shyness) and I think especially in Hollywood that hurt. These days it’s a lot easier to socialize using the Internet, although it’s still important to get out there in person as well.
Shouldn’t we be judged on our writing alone? Yes, but then again, there shouldn’t be any wars, world hunger, or bad things happening to good people…
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