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Simple advice to Class of 2011: Be good and be nice

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By Daryn Kagan 3:23 PM Saturday, June 4, 2011

“Daryn, would you have any words of advice to share with my son who is looking to get into journalism?”

So began a recent email from a woman I went to college with.

“Sure,” I replied. But why keep it to just that young man? I can share with you, as well. My advice is pretty short and simple.

Be good and be nice.

By “good,” I mean be willing to work your you-know-what off. No assignment is too small. No shift is too inconvenient. No city is too small or too far away to move to in order to get your big break. That sense of entitlement that you weren’t meant to pay your dues? You can leave that at the door. Work really hard to learn the ropes until you are an asset to have on the team. I started out in the business with tons of folks more talented and better looking than me. My secret sauce was my drive to work hard and get good.

By “nice” I mean, well, be nice. Viewers might see just one anchor or reporter on their screen, but trust me, TV news is a team sport. It takes a village to produce a good product and more selfishly to make you look good on the air. It’s the subtle way I’ve seen the most powerful and least powerful people on my team go the extra mile to help out, simply because they like me and know I show them respect.

Sure, you will see plenty of examples of the not-so-good and not-so-nice along the way. I remember the beautiful blonde up-and-coming news anchor who flung her chicken biscuit across the studio because the teleprompter operator didn’t order it correctly from the fast food stand downstairs. Never mind, that “chicken biscuit fetcher” was not in the description of that young person’s entry-level job. There was the actress the network was trying to turn into a news anchor who chewed out a make-up artist because she didn’t glue in her puppy-dog shaped hair extensions just so.

Sure, there was a time when it looked like some of those kind of people were zooming past me on the career and opportunity ladder. Stick around long enough and you’ll see that kind of behavior has some oomph, but no last. Neither of those women are in the business anymore.

“Well, neither are you,” I reminded myself. That is true. When CNN let me go after 12 years, many asked, “Why didn’t they keep you longer?” I knew the better question was, “How did I ever last so long?” After all, I outlasted seven different management changes. The answer was simple. I was good, and I was nice.

Just like paying into a generous 401k account, the dividends of those choices continue to pay off. True story: As I was writing this week’s column about being good and being nice, I suddenly noticed a spike in my website and Twitter traffic. I tracked down the cause. For no apparent reason, Greta Van Susteren chose last week to write about me and my website on her Fox News blog. “If you think your diet could use a little good cheer from time to time,” Greta wrote, “I recommend that you follow Daryn on her Twitter account and go to her website.”

I haven’t worked with Greta since she left CNN for Fox 10 years ago. But for the time we did work together, she set the bar for being good and being nice. When you show up that way, you meet a lot more people like that than yahoos who make for entertaining stories.

I strongly suspect my Be Good Be Nice theory crosses over to countless careers. Show me a job that isn’t a team sport.

So, young grads, tuck that thought between your cap and your gown. Be good and be nice, not just to get ahead. It’s going to make the whole ride a heck of a lot more fun and enjoyable.

Daryn Kagan is the creator and host of DarynKagan.com, an online community that features a daily webcast of inspirational stories. She is the author of “What’s Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared To Dream They Could Make a Difference.”

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