In reading this post from the Fast Company blog, I immediately thought of almost every project I’ve ever worked on in my professional career. PR is the art of making it seem like you know what you’re doing, and then being really good at figuring it out before anyone realizes you’re a fraud.
"You need to reach doctors with your message? CEOs of law firms? Illiterate librarians with diaper fetishes? That’s what we do best!"
I usually tell younger people who ask me about a career in PR that the only two things you need to make it are spectacular writing skills and to be insanely intelligent. Not only to have a breadth of knowledge, but to know what you don’t know, and more importantly where to find it. In order to make it in this business, you need to love knowledge. When I think of all the useless crap I know about airborne allergens and carpet care, about the legalities of service marks, obesity trends and import tarrifs on chicken in Canada, I always wonder about what kind of useful thing could have occupied those byte sectors. Maybe it could have been how to properly boost a car, or how to spell the word "deperate" right the first time.
You can stop pretending you know what you’re doing. I know you’re making everything up as you go (hoping nobody notices). It’s OK though – that’s not where your problems are coming from. Rather, your problems are coming from the fact that you think other people know what they’re doing. It’s an illusion that’s wreaking havoc in your life.
Imagine how much different the PR business would be if we all admitted that we didn’t always know what we were doing. I can’t imagine it would be good for monthly billings, but it certainly would be freeing.
