Lesson Five: Men Genuinely Care, Even The Prime Minister.
This isn’t me yanking it nor is it I fudging the story. This is what happened and said lesson was learnt and documented.
I met the Prime Minister, John Key, three years ago when he was the opposition leader and he was on the campaign trail. My own perseverance got him to our studio after months of emailing and calling back and forth to his press Secretary, the wonderful Leslie. In he walked with his security team and a handshake and polite kiss on the cheek followed.
What sealed it for me was during the FIFA World Cup and I decided, on a gutsy whim, to ring this cell phone number I had that I was POSITIVE was the PM’s. Gutsy because I can’t remember how I got the number AND he was in South Africa in an official capacity.
I rang, and he answered, “Hi John speaking” and we had him on air. From that point I was able to text him directly (as I’m sure many media people can) and arrange for him to be on the show. From that point he would walk in, open arms and give me a big hug, throw his jacket off and sit down to breakfast and coffee that we always had waiting for him. It always felt like he was pleased to be there and interested in us as people – especially off air.
Three weeks ago when my redundancy was made public I text John to see whether or not he was free to chat during our final week on air and told him what was happening.
PM: “What!…. that’s outrageous”
ME: “Yeah – long story. So when are you free?”
PM: “Are you still on air?”
ME: “Yeah – until next Friday, Nov 25”.
PM: “No, I mean right now?”
ME: “Oh….duh. No.”
Then my cell phone rings and it’s the PM asking what the hell is going on and am I okay. It’s a pretty surreal moment. I mean the cynics could say, “Oh he’ll do anything for a vote”. But he genuinely wanted to know how I was, how I thought the new breakfast show would go here and what my next move would be. Then we had an off-the-record talk about the election campaign and that damn cup of tea he had with Banks.
People are never as they seem and while I’m not a family friend, I feel that Prime Minister John Key is a pretty genuine man who cares. At least at one time he did genuinely care enough for this little unemployed half cast, to pick up his phone and ring her, just one week out from a general election.
That's a great story Tarsh. It's good to get a fresh perspective of The Man in charge of the country.
ReplyDeleteCool story Tarsh. Great to know the Big Cheese is a nice guy. Hope things are going well since you've finished. Good luck with the writing.
ReplyDelete