A good friend of mine calls me to tell me how frustrated she is with a particular corporate dental company. A little background; dentists who own their own private practice are not big fans of the corporate model and so neither am I! I hear her frustration and it's legitimate. I'm pressed for a deadline to write an editorial and told her to send me the information that she was disgruntled about. I thought I could write about this "issue" of corporate dentistry and as I was thinking about the flow of my editorial, it hit me.
The story is always better from the horse's mouth. I thought she would have a better take on the presentation of the editorial. I call my friend and tell her that my deadline was coming up for the editorial, but I felt she would be better suited to write a guest editorial for me. She said, yes. She said it'll train her to take over my job soon anyways. I asked her what job? She said, being the editor!
More background for you folks. I'm the editor for the magazine on the city level. I had applied to be editor for the magazine on the state level. I was quite slated to get the position. I was requested to apply several times. I declined because I felt obligated to my little city publication. The thing is this. After my editorship, our publication won a couple of awards and we have upped the level of the publication that it competes with a lot of the state level publications. I felt attached to this one. I couldn't leave it and I couldn't be editor to both.
As I had talked to my friend about it, she suggested I apply for the state level. If I got in, she would take over my editorship on the city level and the publication would be fine and I could still help her with it. Long story short, I didn't get the position and I'm not here to talk about that, but it was a couple of years ago. So, when my friend said she was going to take over my job, I was surprised. I reminded her that I didn't get the state editorship. She said, ya I know that, but when they realize they made a huge mistake, they'll want you back and then I'll take over this publication! "Ya right!" I said. "They're not going to do that!" and that was that.
The interesting thing about this conversation for me is two fold. One, I have friends ready to step up to the plate for me. Second, I have friends who believe I am destined for "bigger" things. I have friends and to me that's one of the biggest blessings of all! The state can keep their publication the way they want it. I'm not backing down. I will keep edging our publication forward. They can copy my ideas and pass it off as their own and follow suit. As my managing editor said when one of their issues looked almost exactly like mine, "I guess it's the best form of flattery!"
That's it for now folks,
Best always,
TTR
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