Take a Pass

Years ago I was an advertising copywriter (still am) and was job hunting. After many attempts — creative directors at ad agencies often don’t place interviewing freelance writers high on their list — I finally got in to see Ken Fitzgerald, then a creative director at Trahan, Burden and Charles, one of the larger and more creative shops in Baltimore. (He’s no longer there.) I started showing him my portfolio, which he really liked, and all of a sudden he picked up his phone and called a creative director at another ad agency in town. “Bill, I’m looking at a book of a guy named David Sattler. You should see him. You’d really like his book. His humor is just like yours. Next Tuesday, okay, hold on.” He turned to me, asked if I was free the following Tuesday at 3 p.m. (I was), and made an appointment for me. He did the same thing with two other ad agencies, and left messages for a couple of other folks who were out of the office.

 He wrote down the names and numbers of everyone he’d called, then told me a couple of other folks I should call “and feel free to use my name.”

 I was astonished: here was a guy I’d never met and didn’t know, who certainly didn’t owe me anything, getting me appointments with folks I’d been unsuccessfully trying to see for weeks. “Ken,” I said, “I’m completely blown away by what you’re doing.”

 He told me he remembered all the times he tried to get an interview with someone and couldn’t, “and I promised myself that when I was in a position to see people and help people I would.”

 I told him I hoped I was in a position one day to return the favor, though I doubted I ever would be in that position. “You want to return the favor?” he asked. “Then pass it on.”

Indeed.