Being taken seriously

Does anybody else ever feel like they aren't taken seriously? When I say that, I largely mean as it pertains to this profession. I think the next time I hear, "Oh, yeah, that really sounds like work!" from someone I'm going to pop them in the mouth (not literally).

I realize that being secure with yourself is a big part of contentment in adulthood, but it seems hard to suppress this deep-seated desire for people to see me as a serious person.

Anyone else ever deal with that, whether it's related to this line of work, your hobbies, etc., etc.? I have to imagine the psychology isn't that uncommon.

 

self-deprecation has always worked for me. face it, we have dream jobs to those who don't know the gory details. hey, we think we have dream jobs -- why else would we be in this biz with such little financial payoff?

so play along. i'm only half-kidding when i offer folks my stock line: "well, it sure beats working for a living."

more often than not, the feedback i've received is envious. with most admitting, "wow, i'd love to do that but i never could write a lick."

who doesn't give you respect, exactly? odds are they are jealous 'cause they're stuck in a profession they hate. who wants to hang with folks happy with what they do? ??? ??? ???

 

I'm having flashbacks to the conversations I had with my psychiatrist about my dad.

 

We do take you seriously, DW.







Now, fetch us a beer, newbie. ;D

(In all seriousness, get used to it. I think most folks outside the profession have no idea what we do. They equate it with writing the academic papers they used to do in school, a la Bobby Knight's old quip that most people learn to write by the fourth grade, then they move on. They only thing that matters is that you take what you do seriously.)

 

I try to be taken seriously as little as possible.

 

I used to be in sports marketing and had the same issues. Everyone just thought I went to games. They didn't understand that I was working or that I spent the entire weekend setting up our events surrounding the New York Marathon -- or some other event/game -- and didn't miss a day in the office.

Or when I did miss a day, I was often on a 6:00 am flight and/or not home before midnight.

Internally, I used to document everything we did -- videos, pictures, testimonials from customers and our sales force -- to justify myself to management.

To people outside of the business it's much harder.

The biggest thing in my mind is to not undermine your own credibility. I had a girl who worked for me who used to love to brag about her job -- who she met, the games she attended, the autographs she got.

I had to shut that down and let her know that if that's all she talked about then of course everyone will think that's all we do and have no respect for us. I wasn't able to fire her right way, but I did make her knock of the autographs and accepting any kind of gifts from the teams we sponsored.

What really pissed me of was when we shot a promo with several Yankees including Roger Clemens. I didn't attend the shoot, but found out later that several of the folks from our ad agency asked for autographs. Damn it! If you're a professional, you don't ask for autographs.

 

I've always thought having "sports journalist" on my resume has made it more difficult to get a job outside of the business. Always felt like people see that and say, "That's not real work."

The hell it's not.

 

Hell, even inside the profession, sports is considered the "toy department," isn't it? Not rightfully so, I may add, but that's the way it seemed at every shop I've been in.

 

I bet if he went by "Richard Whitman" people would take him seriously.

 

Take what you do seriously. Never take yourself seriously.

------

It's worthy advice, though I do a pretty poor job of it. On a personal level, this is not easy, primarily because a party I'm trying to help doesn't listen to anything, and the other takes herself - and EVERYTHING else - entirely too seriously.

 

I only want to be taken seriously on key scoring questions in prep games.

 

Be yourself. The rest takes care of itself.

That's all I got.