Yesterday I wrote about Dick Bolles, and said it’s “the end of a legacy.” Perhaps I should have written “the end of a legend.” Or, the next chapter of a legend.
From the comments on yesterday’s post, and throughout the internet, it’s clear that this man was the father of the modern job search, and that he impacted many, many people. Great tributes have been written about him.
I found a 32 minute video when he was at Google, doing a presentation titled “How to decide what you’ll be doing five years from now.” Check it out here.
Years ago, when I was doing the Ask the Expert interviews, Dick graciously agreed to be a guest on my show. You can watch it below… but if you do, you’ll notice the first 20 minutes I was flying solo.
That was not planned.
Here’s what happened: I had been in touch with Dick, the consummate professional, about being on my show. He readily agreed, and I didn’t want to hound him with reminders. I was very sensitive about giving him enough information without him feeling like I was harassing him. I was sure that he would come, be on time, etc. After all, he had probably done this a gazillion times.
So I started the webinar and had a great audience. Questions were coming in for him, and you could feel the excitement build. But Dick wasn’t there yet.
I emailed him, I even called him… but nothing. No response.
I remembered that he was in his mid-t0-late eighties, and I worried that perhaps he had…. passed away. This was about four years ago… I think he was 86 or 87. Was my show going to be the way that everyone knew he had passed away?
I hoped not. I wanted to interview him, and learn from him!
For twenty minutes I ad-libbed, I sweated, I worried, and I wondered. That was a LONG twenty minutes.
Then, thank goodness, Dick joined the call. He was apologetic, and I was relieved! He was ALIVE!
He said he was late because he stayed up all night working, on deadline, on the next version of his book, which was due the morning of our call. He fell asleep at his desk (that made for an interesting visual), and just barely woke up.
Did I say I was relieved? Not for me, nor for the interview, but that Dick Bolles was okay!
Here’s the interview… I was amazed that he brought new-to-me information and ideas.