Barak and me - not really....
Sep. 26th, 2012 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisFor a bunch of years, I wrote executive speeches. I loved the work and I was good at it - well, good enough for what was needed anyway. It gave me a fascinating look at the head that wears the crown, so to speak. I had to know the speakers - what they would say and how they would say it. Then I had to know the content. Then I had to put it all together and 'sell' it to the speaker.
The speakers where all guys - executives - men who had worked their way up to a position of power and were using that position now to make something happen and so climb even higher. (One of them went on to be the chairman and CEO of IBM for many years.)
They are a different breed, these men. And, while in the giant scheme of things, I was dealing with relatively small potatoes, I honestly think they put their pants on just like the big potatoes do. Destined and all that.
I thought a lot about those men and how they worked and thought and operated while I was reading this absolutely fascinating portrait of Obama in Vanity Fair.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama
There is one part in the article where Obama's speech writers had him the speech and he pitches it into the trash. Actually, what he does is use it to organize his own version which he delivers.
The one guy I worked for the longest used to do that all the time. I used to tease him that he paid me only to provide him with words that he could cross out and double spaced lines he could write between and he used to say 'of course! and you do a great job every time!'
It was a great fun job and this article is truly a fascinating read.
And... I started reading it in the waiting room this morning and I had to have glasses and a giant font. This afternoon, I finished it with no glasses and a much small font. PROGRESS!!!
The speakers where all guys - executives - men who had worked their way up to a position of power and were using that position now to make something happen and so climb even higher. (One of them went on to be the chairman and CEO of IBM for many years.)
They are a different breed, these men. And, while in the giant scheme of things, I was dealing with relatively small potatoes, I honestly think they put their pants on just like the big potatoes do. Destined and all that.
I thought a lot about those men and how they worked and thought and operated while I was reading this absolutely fascinating portrait of Obama in Vanity Fair.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama
There is one part in the article where Obama's speech writers had him the speech and he pitches it into the trash. Actually, what he does is use it to organize his own version which he delivers.
The one guy I worked for the longest used to do that all the time. I used to tease him that he paid me only to provide him with words that he could cross out and double spaced lines he could write between and he used to say 'of course! and you do a great job every time!'
It was a great fun job and this article is truly a fascinating read.
And... I started reading it in the waiting room this morning and I had to have glasses and a giant font. This afternoon, I finished it with no glasses and a much small font. PROGRESS!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-26 11:14 pm (UTC)Interesting, fascinating to read about your speech writing days. You basically served as a thesaurus, I think.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-26 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-27 11:20 pm (UTC)