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“It’s really not worth doing something like this if you’re not really going for it.”
An award-winning print magazine editor’s notes on starting up, working with your heroes, and setting a high bar
I’m in the middle of developing a speech for Creative Doing right now, and the research process led me to revisit an interview I did with Dan Crowe (who most recently launched INQUE magazine) a few years ago.
A few excerpts from Dan that I really loved:
“My friends and I that launched [Port], we put together a list of heroes that we wanted to work with. And then I approached all of them. With only a few exceptions, we ended up working with all of them in the first five issues. Hence, Daniel Day-Lewis on Issue 1, and David Remnick from the New Yorker on Issue 2.”
See make lists, Aesop on lists, and make a map.
If the person on your list is busy, try this:
“You don’t ask them much. Ask them for a 50-word quote, ask them for a picture of their favorite book or something, but get them involved in your network. Very easy thing to start working with somebody, even if they’re saying no, they’re still saying something. You start from there. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a politician or a writer or a…
