Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead_. But Gutsy Girls Do - Kate White [19]
The moment after I put it on the editor-in-chief's desk, I began to panic. They never did pieces like the one I'd just handed in and I worried that she'd see me as a real kook. (I imagined her calling Personnel and saying, “Help, there's a girl on my staff who thinks there are giant seed pods under her bed.”) But as it turned out she loved the article and crashed it into the next issue. I got dozens of letters from readers who said things like, “How did you know how I feel? I could have written those words myself.” And I was asked by the managing editor to begin churning out essays on any subject that I felt passionate about.
Looking at her own needs was exactly what Andrea Robinson did. Despite the preponderance of colors at makeup counters everywhere, she herself wanted makeup that would enhance her appearance without making her look like she was wearing much. “I couldn't find the kind of makeup I wanted,” she says. “I wanted to look like I was wearing something, but I didn't want to seem painted with a lot of blue, pink, or red.”
2. Ask Yourself, “What Are They Really Looking For?”
I've been talking about how you need to step outside the boundaries you've been given, but how do you do that without going in the wrong direction and getting lost—or arrested for trespassing? One trick is to consider the ultimate goal of the project you're working on, regardless of whatever guidelines or instructions you've been given.
Recently I talked to this charming, high-powered young woman, Amanda Schatz, associate manager of 3 Arts Entertainment, who had worked in an entry-level position at the LA.-based Creative Artists Agency. One day her boss and she were discussing how the agency might become more of a force m the New York market, and he suggested she make a list of people they could develop as contacts. As she thought about the assignment later, she decided to do something far more expansive. He had given her a “starter project,” but the ultimate goal, she knew, was to establish a plan for New York. She wrote a four-page memo on how to get into the New York market and her boss was so blown away, he sent it around the company. A few days later, Mike Ovitz, the president and one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, called to tell her how impressed he was.
3. Live By the Phrase, “What More Could I Do?”
No matter what description you've been given for either an assignment or your overall job, you have to always be wondering how to make it broader, bolder, more exciting.
The woman who has taught me the most about ignoring the parameters—or to use the vogue expression of the day, “pushing the envelope”—is Andrea Kaplan, the vice president in charge of corporate communications for Gruner & Jahr. You give her parameters and she starts toying with them, like a cat with yarn, and it's such a kick to watch. She got her start in public relations working for a small, prestigious firm that represented a variety of clients. She'd only been working there for a few months when she began to go outside the lines and expand the responsibilities she'd been given.
The client she'd been assigned to was a fashion magazine, and she'd been told by her boss to write four or five press releases each month, based on material from each issue, and pitch them to the Associated Press and other wire services. The hope was to get at least one story on the wires for every issue. Each month the drill was pretty much the same—her boss never suggested she waver from the basic plan.
In March,