FAQ, Opinions, & Observations

·        Why did you bother to get your fellowship?

At the time I went for my Fellowship, I was acutely aware of two potential career factors that made earning the fellowship desirable.

First, I was – at that time – well into my second job that had “required” a masters degree – a degree that I’d not obtained, one that didn’t look like it was in the cards.  I’d come very close to completing my masters while at the University of South Carolina, but upon taking a job in Nashville, I discovered that the nearest school where I could finish the degree was in Knoxville, 175 or so miles away.  So I thought a fellowship would be a useful “equivalent-alternative” to that elusive sheepskin.

Second, at the time, I was the VP/PR and Marketing at the Tennessee Hospital Association; I consulted with 20 Tennessee hospitals and guided the 168-member-hospital organization in areas of marketing and public relations.  I felt that the credibility that would come with the Fellowship – which, if successful, I’d earn at about the same time that the American Hospital Association was due to publish my second book (“AHA’s Basic Guide to Hospital Public Relations”) – would give me the standing I needed to continue to provide leadership within the Association.

Of course, I didn’t know when I did the work, that I’d leave the Association and go to work with one of the emerging second-generation for-profit hospital companies – Republic Health. There, I didn’t need credibility – instead, I had responsibility, and the authority to go with it.

·        Why have you written so many books on public relations and marketing?

If there was any money in it, I’d teach.  I love the challenge of figuring things out, then helping others to see what I’ve discovered – or uncovered.  But there’s not much money in college-level teaching (no to mention the near-intolerable – to me, anyway – bureaucracy so common at Universities), but in writing books, I could share my passion for scholarship and learning – and make a nice second income.

·        You’ve had a lot of jobs …

Yes, that’s true.  A big chunk of that was just poor timing. I got into for-profit hospital marketing at a time when – thanks to Bosky-like corporate raiders – there was nothing but turmoil in that industry.  In fairly short order I was part of company-wide layoffs of corporate marketing people at Republic (due to a leveraged buy-out) and AMI (due to a hostile take-over); and I failed to survive a pre-packaged bankruptcy that raped Charter’s ESOP fund, enriching the owners while leaving all employees without a retirement plan (and a number of us without a job).  A few years later, this pattern was repeated when I signed on to the Silicon Valley high-tech bubble-ride just before the bubble burst.

One of the reasons I’ve kept coming back to my own business is that – when you work for yourself – it’s really hard to be laid off. 

More to the point, I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy the freedom, flexibility and opportunity of self-employment.