Show Introduction and Question

Speaker 1 0:00

This show is all about fuck-ups in people's careers and what they've learned from them. And so, Andrew, what's the biggest fuck-up you've made in your career and what did you learn from it?

First Journalism Job Experience

Today Newspaper Launch Disaster

Speaker 2 0:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah, god, there's plenty of them. I guess one that springs to mind very, very early in my career, when I started out as a journalist, in fact, I began working for the retail newsagent magazine and so for the first year as an editorial assistant, they didn't really let me out. And then finally, one of them said, right, okay, I'm going to give you your first press conference to go to. And in fact they did use the phrase don't fuck it up, because it was the launch of the Today newspaper. It was 1986. This is a big deal First national newspaper launch in what? About 100 years?

Eddie Shah's Kind Intervention

Speaker 2 0:51

And there was little me from the retail newsagent sitting on a bus going off to Poyle near Heathrow to go to the printing press where Eddie Schar was going to push the button to kind of launch the presses. I'm sat there with a great and good athlete, fleet street thinking oh, you know, I was told, don't come back unless you get an exclusive interview with eddie char. And you know, here's the camera. You know, go and get some good pictures. Like I've never taken a proper picture of my life and it's like what. So I'm on the bus, we get there and, uh, the great and good, a fleet Street surround the console where Eddie Shah is going to push the button to launch the press. I'm stuffed here. I can't get an interview. Where can I get a good picture? And I look behind me and there was this huge gantry. I thought that's a brilliant spot. I'll go up there. There's nobody up there, brilliant. I'm going to get an amazing picture of Eddie Shah pushing the button. So I get up there and he's just about to push the red button and he looks up and he sees me and he says I wouldn't stand there if I were you and the whole of Fleet Street turns around and sees me.

Speaker 2 1:51

I was standing on the printing press. I would have become front page news for all the wrong reasons if he pushed the button. And the whole of Fleet Street In full color as well. I believe In full colour as well. I believe In full colour, absolutely. But the whole of Fleet Street, the whole lot of them just burst out laughing and I thought that's it, my career is finished. So I trudged down the steps going. I've got to go back. I've failed, I've got no interview, I've got no picture. I've humiliated myself on my first day with a whole of bloody Fleet Street. But, to his eternal credit, eddie Sharp sought me out. He said you're new at this, aren't you? I'm like, yes. He said, come here. So he got a tip of the hat to him. He gave me five minutes of his time. I got my interview, I got some shots with him, but that's because he proactively sought me out and obviously felt bloody sorry for me.

Speaker 1 2:45

I tell you what, mate, yeah, but you I bet he remembers you as well. He'll remember that, which is quite an accolade when you've got so many people in the crowd yeah, yeah, see, maybe I've got a taste of PI.

Speaker 2 2:54

See, it's like, how do you get attention? Well, and it could have been a lot worse, couldn't it, had you tripped and fallen back into the printing press flat. Stanley, yes, tripped and fallen back into the printing press. Flat Stanley.

Speaker 1 3:04

Yes, flat Andrew.

Speaker 2 3:06

Yes, life could be very different. Brilliant. Well, there you go.