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Thoughts on Willy Don
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The Tuesday, Nov. 3rd issue of The Daily Record featured a front cover, full-color picture of the 8-foot, bronze statue dedicated recently in honor of former Baltimore Mayor, Maryland Governor and State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. It reminded me of some of the stories I had heard about Willy Don and his “Do it Now” mantra, a philosophy which I adopted as my own many years ago.
Research and preparation, as we in PR know, are the backbone of our field. How can you give wise counsel if you haven’t done your homework? How can you be sure your client is properly protected if you rush in where angels and media fear to tred?
However, there can be “too much of a good thing.” In public relations we sometimes suffer from what I call the “ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim…” phenomenon. I’ve worked in organizations that were so afraid of doing anything that might be in anyway prove politically incorrect (to both external and internal audiences…and usually, more the internal), that it seemed nothing was ever getting done. Lots of meetings, lots of conference reports, lots of emails, lots of running in place...like that recent movie, a “failure to launch.”
That’s why I always appreciated Mr. Schaefer’s “Do it Now” mentality. Don’t procrastinate, avoid the “don’t put off til tomorrow what you can put off ti the day after tomorrow” mindset that seems so pervasive nowadays. Mr. Schaefer was always a “get things done” sort of guy, which is why I know he was a favorite of my Dad, an old school Irishman for whom everything came down to that proverbial “bottomline.”
Mr. Schaefer was RESULTS driven and that’s what gets votes in the ballot box. Not what you SAID you were going to do, but what DID YOU DO. You can give all the pretty speeches til the cows come home, but if you’ve still got potholes turning the road in front of your house into the lunar landscape six months after you first called the City to do something about it, chances are you’re not going to be too happy with the man or woman in charge, if you follow.
But as anyone knows who recalls how Willy Don donned a 1920s’ style bathing suit and straw hat and dived into the seal pool to help kickoff the Baltimore National Aquarium, the man’s a character. For instance, I recall attending a public relations meeting where the guest speaker was one of Mr. Schaefer’s former press secretaries.
As he told his “war stories,” I was reminded of a Vietnam vet, glassy eyed and weary, showing these and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome. He spoke of how he felt as though he was trodding on “egg shells” as he walked up his driveway each night to his home, knowing there’d be a message from Schaefer to greet him…or the time he had a call at 4 a.m. from Schaefer saying he planned to hold an impromptu press conference that same morning and to make all the arrangements.
“What’s the press conference about?” he asked. Schaefer wouldn’t say.
Well, the man had a way of keeping people on their toes, and that is for the betterment of the citizens served, and since I am one of those citizens (a resident of Baltimore City since 2006!), I appreciate it. Well done, Mr. Schaefer. And nice statue!
