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Ryan Paugh graduated from Penn State in 2006 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business. After working in corporate communications, freelance writing and reporting, he co-founded 
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Back in college, a journalism professor told me if I wanted to get noticed, I needed to start a blog. I was too busy enjoying my social life to really care.
“That’s BS!” I’d say. “Who spends their free time blogging?”
Oh the irony…
A couple months into Employee Evolution, Healy and I were looking for all the help we could get. We searched high and low. Healy found Penelope, but I was still coming up dry.
Then I thought of that professor, whom I gave so much trouble. She was an active blogger under several aliases and I knew exactly where to find her.
That evening I wrote a lengthy email. I explained what I was doing with my life and asked her to give me some feedback. Of course, I was hoping for a lot more, but feedback was a reasonable jump-off point.
Days went by, then weeks, then months – NOTHING. And here I am on the verge of the biggest leap I’ve ever taken. There are a million things to be concerned with, and yet, I continue to think about why she never wrote me back.
There are dozen possibilities. Maybe she accidentally deleted it, or maybe my email got spammed. Hell, maybe she retired early and PSU forgot to take her off the faculty roster. Who knows? But for some reason, I feel like she dogged me.
And who could blame her? I was the kid who showed up late (if at all) and didn’t exactly take things seriously. Obviously, I’m a very different person today, but all she had to go on was that college brat who was “too cool for school.”
The worst part was I utterly discounted her passion for blogging. I thought it was stupid and worthless. And here I am today – about to start a company that stemmed from a blog.
Now the lesson here is not that you shouldn’t be a brat in college. Nobody could’ve curbed my selfishly reckless behavior (and I don’t really regret it). The lesson is to never take other people’s ideas for granted.
All too often we shrug off great ideas because we think they’re “stupid and worthless.” We act like “college me,” and completely miss out on something with the potential to be great.
I see it in the working world all the time. More often than not, it’s management discounting their employees, not giving them enough credit as creative thinkers. But it’s also co-workers discounting each other, for no apparent reason, other than pride.
Since starting Employee Evolution, I’ve learned that the best ideas are born in simplistic ways. At first, they may not even seem like they’re going to work, but you try. If you don’t, you’re just as dumb and naïve as me in college.
Today I decided to write another letter to my professor. I want to tell her what I’m doing with my life. Not to brag that I did it without her help, but to tell her I was an idiot for not listening to her ideas.
Maybe it’s worth nothing else than my own piece of mind, but that’s enough for me. If nothing else, I’ve learned from my mistakes. From now on, I’ll keep an open mind, because the best ideas are usually the ones we question. But sometimes, when we answer those questions, the outcome is nothing less than great.
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Ryan,
I appreciate the larger point you are making about respecting ideas.
On the more practical, level, however, part of the issue with the particular correspondence you describe is simply e-mail etiquette. Professors are often overwhelmed by their inbox. If you want a response to query, you probably have to be succinct. A sentence or two explaining who you are. A sentence or two stating the specific action (i.e., information you were hoping for) you are requesting. And that’s it.
This professor may be happy to hear from you but panicked in the face of such a long e-mail.
- Cal
Ryan,
I can empathize. I once started blogging back in 2002, but due to some work/life issues and the fact that I thought blogging as of no use, I gave it up. A few years later I’m back at blogging and this time taking it more seriously. But this time I got to juggle it with a column-writing job and law studies.
Life. Its really funny how it works out sometimes.
Congratulations on your insight and I hope that professor gets in touch with you.
@Cal: You may by right. Like I said, there were a dozen possibilities. Who really knows? But when you think about the larger picture, the reasons that could’ve been are definitely important to consider. If nothing else, it’s a lesson learned. Thanks for sharing.
@Kelvin: Life’s got a funny way about it. I hope she gets in touch too. I’m glad you decided to get back on the blogging horse.
Ryan,
This could go back to building your own brand.
You didn’t realize it then, but you were building
your brand–one as a student who didn’t seem to respect
her or the class. It takes a while to build that back.
Then, again, maybe she’s too busy blogging and
didn’t have time to get back to you!
Ryan,
Nice story and I can somewhat relate. I remember disregarding a lot of people in high school who had good ideas. Now, I’m trying to reconnect with them and getting many non-responses.
I really like Cal’s idea too. It is probably better to break the ice first so people and then share more of the story.
One thing I have learned is not to get upset about people failing to write back. There may be tons of reasons, including an unlikely lost email or one marked as spam. My new strategy is to write emails to many friends so that by the time people write back I often forgot that I sent them an email. I get a nice little surprise when some one does reply and I’m not paying attention to each email I sent out.