Those Who Came Before Us

One thing I enjoy doing is hiking, especially in surroundings that are beautiful. Just recently, for example, I spent time in Park City, Utah, exploring a small portion of the Wasatch Mountains. It was great fun, particularly as this region of our country is one of the most scenic. (Quick recommendation: If you can, hike to the top of Bald Mountain. At 12,000 feet, the view is simply wonderful.) Hiking the trails in Utah and other places I have been fortunate enough to see is made so much easier because they are clearly marked  - even though they are, at times, quite rigorous. Obviously, that means folks long before I came along navigated those pathways and helped make it possible for people like me to take advantage of them.


No matter what area of life one might select, one would be extremely hard-pressed to not find pioneers of some sort, men and women who struggled to plant, compose, or establish guide posts for those who followed behind them. This is certainly the case in the field of communication. Yes, it is no-doubt true that how we communicate today is unlike how it was done in the past. Nevertheless, there were men and women who devised ways for one public to connect or interact with another in ways that provided with mutual levels of satisfaction and advancement. Whatever initiatives are happening today in that regard represent additions to what was done in the past.    


Such a reality is no small thing. For all of us who compile media kits, email blasts, marketing strategies or talking points - to name a few communication tools - just know there were professionals  whose initial struggles with these instruments make it possible for today's practitioners to generate positive visibility for their clients. They, whose names include Bernays, Lee, Harlow and Fleischman, did far more than navigate the trails we walk today. They actually built them. Our responsibility in today's world is to try and improve upon those trails. Also, along the way, we should recognize that whatever success we might have is due, at least in a small way, to the efforts of those who came before us.