FUNNY STORY (and last Buffett post, I promise): Back in the summer of 2000, I was working at a newspaper when I saw a job ad for an associate editor at a boating magazine. I really wanted to get into magazines, and a boating magazine seemed REALLY cool. The problem was I knew ZERO about boats and boating.
I wrote a few drafts of a cover letter and absolutely hated them. They were dry, like I was applying to be an accountant. I needed to try something different.
I bought a six-pack of Corona and started playing Jimmy Buffett CDs. I was two Coronas deep when the creative juices started flowing. I wish I still had a copy of the letter, but it was something like “Sure, I have no boating experience, but I’m a really big Jimmy Buffett fan, and that has to count for something.” It was a shot in the dark.
Years later, my editor, Betsy, told me that the job came down to me and one other person. Betsy justifiably placed a lot of value on boating experience, and while she liked my writing and editing and wanted to hire me, this other candidate had actual boating experience.
She said the fact that I put I liked Jimmy Buffett in the cover letter gave her the justification to hire me.
Because of that, I had a fantastic job with fantastic people for several years, and then spent the next few decades writing boating freelance articles, working for a boating website, and writing boating marketing content. It’s funny how life works out.
