The man who’s done it all (and succeeded) shares his 5 rules to career growth
Frank J. Radice is the Managing Partner of the Promotion, Marketing, Media, and consulting firm, VIDA F.R. Company.
Let’s say you’ve moved to the big city for an entry level job at the company you’ve always dreamed about. Or you’ve landed your dream job after working tirelessly for years. But once there, and after the glitter wore off, and the glamour faded away, you ask yourself... What are you going to do to make your mark and get ahead? After all, landing the job is only step one. It’s the opposite of the old adage, one door closes and another opens. In this case, one door opens, and all the others are closed, for now. So, how do you get through the closed doors?
I’ve always felt the best way to grow in any career is dependent on 5 very simple rules.
Do whatever you do better than anyone else, and better than the boss expects. I started out as an assistant film editor at a local TV station in Washington, DC. In the early 70’s. That meant I worked weekend nights as a full editor. It was usually so slow that I probably only cut a B-roll piece for live voice over by the anchor talent. There were no people from management in the building at all. So, this little story called Watergate was in the news, and as luck would have it, one weekend when I was working, president Richard Nixon decided to fire the people most likely to harm him. It was called “The Saturday Night Massacre.” The local station I worked at was WRC/NBC and the network was just down the hall. They were also short staffed. Well, when the ship hit the fan they came running after everyone to help get them on the air with a big special that night. I was pulled into the fray. I cut film right next to the big boys, did a bang up job, kudos all around. Word spread. Not long after that I was a full fledged editor at ABC News a short distance away. Everybody knows everybody. Word spreads.
Invent something that’s never been seen before, just make sure they need it. My next job in the mid to late 70’s, after being a film editor at ABC News, I became an assignment editor. It was a different path than the technical side, and it was a risk. In my first year I was a temporary employee working on the overnight desk. International cables, wire stories, and general office information from all our global bureaus didn’t stop because it was late on the East Coast. Some of this mountain of material was copied into a constantly running, typewritten log with a place for initials if action needed to be taken. A lot of my time was spent the next day explaining what happened overnight, and why things got logged in. It seemed to me that if everyone had access to all the material I did, then everyone would start the day on the same page. So, I created the morning bible. A big fat document filled with all the accumulated material from the night before. I worked with a desk assistant to xerox and staple them into booklets, which were then left on the desks of anyone I thought was important, so they could get a jump on the day. That showed them I was organized, as well as a thinker and a doer. It led directly to my next job, a full time assignment editor and then an associate producer -- a coveted position at the time. It also paid a lot more.
Make contacts and relationships. They are different, but not mutually exclusive. Later in my career, the early 80’s, I had a lot of success in journalism, but after years in the field, and not just a few hot zones under my belt, I thought I’d try something different. Between wars and politics, I covered entertainment and Hollywood. Everyone wanted to be on TV, and I was their ticket. I made friends, created a huge Rolodex of contacts (I imagine you’re seeing the no computer thread throughout all of this), and many of them became relationships. At the time, Entertainment Tonight was just getting started, but with my news background and live coverage skills, added to my new list of contacts and relationships. I pitched a live hard news approach to covering the entertainment business to CNN. I didn’t get the gig. But when the person who did left, they brought me in. In fact, the exec who called asked me if I wanted to come and produce my show. I did, and that was my transition into the world I would be in for the rest of my career. Entertainment! The lesson is that you never know where a relationship might lead, so never stop building and nurturing your network.
Be friendly. I hadn’t made any enemies between the 70’s and the late 80’s, and that helped me a lot as I worked my way up the ladder. Try and be gracious and friendly with everyone because you will surely need those friends when the enemies pop up, and they will. I don’t want to talk about that, it’s too painful...but suffice to say, my friends always helped me get through it.
Be curious. By now it’s the mid 90’s and I was an executive in charge of promotion and marketing at NBC News. Early on in the social media explosion, I had an employee who came to me and said, you need a Twitter and Facebook account. I wanted to know why, and he said, if you don’t, you’re an idiot. I listened and I learned how to use them. Together, he and I pitched our bosses at NBC News that the Today Show should jump on the bandwagon. They didn’t see it as something worth their attention at the time, so they told us to handle it. We did, and the numbers grew every day. Eventually at a staff meeting, it was asked if we were doing anything with Twitter or Facebook. I reminded them that I’d told them about it a while back, and that my promotion team was handling it. The news division took ownership back that very day. Our curiosity was the start of something big.
As you can see, success takes a long time. But if you focus, keep on a steady course, learn everything you can so your employees trust your abilities, and master the basics through practice, you will thrive.
As “The Firesign Theater” said back in the 60’s... “You’ve got to start out young, if you're going to stick it out.”