The Invisible Mentor

Archive for July 30th, 2010

Here is the second part of the interview with Jenny Pickles who has worked in the publishing industry for 15 years. What are five great ideas from the interview, and which bits of the interview can you use?

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I have worked in the publishing industry since 1995, firstly at Emerald Group Publishing Ltd initially  in the Editorial department.  Here I was responsible for organizing the annual best paper awards for excellence and managing a suite of real estate and environmental scholarly journals. In 2000 I transferred to the Business Development department and took on responsibility for digital licensing, reprints and permissions.  Two years ago I was lucky enough to be offered the role of Associate Director of Global Rights at John Wiley & Sons in the UK. This involves responsibility for all secondary licensing of the many thousands of books and journals published by Wiley including translation rights, permissions and digital licensing.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Since moving to the south of the country to take up my new role my work/life balance has not been especially good, so I am working at building a new network of friends and areas of interest – a work in progress.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

Would like to spend more time with my family – I am sure most people would wish for that.  I try to visit as often as I can and they visit me, but this is definitely at the top of my to-do list after I retire and don’t have to juggle limited time and the need to earn a living.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Respect people and they will be more likely to respect you back. Listen to people, they often have interesting and important things to say that you can learn from, spend your money wisely but enjoy your life too, you only get one chance to get it right, aim to leave the world (or even just your workplace or community) in a better place than you found it, be kind and always try to see the other person’s point of view – I don’t always practice what I preach but I try to work at it – it definitely improves both the personal and business aspects of life.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I like the theatre, music, and spend a great amount of my time immersed in a good book – usually thrillers, mysteries and I am not averse to a little supernatural element here and there, my particular favourites of the moment are Harlen Coben, Kathy Reichs, Dean Koontz, Diana Gabaldon,Tess Gerittsen and Andew Gross.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Talking to my colleagues over drinks or a good Thai meal always works for me. We usually come back to the office with lots of ideas.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

See mentor section above

How do you define success?

Fulfillment at a job well done or an achievement worked hard for.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

The willingness to work for it without stamping on others in the process.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Outlined above

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

As above

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Ah now that is a challenge in itself. Assuming they don’t all have to be alive now – if they do I will need to rethink –

1. Stephen Fry (who is), the English actor and comedian now also appearing more often in US programmes such as Bones,  because he is  so intelligent, witty and interesting and makes me laugh.
2. Richard III because I am curious to know if the portrayal of him by some historians and Shakespeare as such an out and out villain who killed his nephews in the Tower is actually true or what really happened.
3. Thomas Jefferson because I would like to hear more first-hand about how the ‘Founding Fathers’ came together, developed their ideas and justified the conflict between individual freedom and slavery.
4. Freddie Mercury, late great from man from Queen, who I miss since his untimely death and all the wonderful music that the world has foregone. I would love him to sing some of my favourites and maybe something new too.
5. Shakespeare to clear up the rumours  about whether he did actually write all of his plays and how he found his inspiration and ideas.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Too many to mention.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

A survival book to teach me how to stay alive long enough to read my five books, Diana Gabalden’s Outlander series which is cheating really because there are about 7 volumes – having read them all I have gone back to the beginning to enjoy it all over again – I would describe it as the most romantic and enduring of historical novels with a supernatural/time travel twist. The characters are wonderful, the writing both funny and emotional.  Can’t think of any others off hand, just too numerous to mention.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no 2 because of its stunningly beautiful melodies, how they change throughout the piece by featuring different instruments from the orchestra and the way it makes me feel – relaxed, invigorated and moved to tears all at the same time. If there is room on the CD to include Tchiakovsky’s Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty as well all the better. The Movie would be my 15^th Anniversary version of the musical version of Les Miserables – absolutely my all time favourite with such a beautiful score and a dashing Marius in Michael Ball.

If you cannot view the YouTube Video of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no 2 please click here.

If you cannot view the YouTube Video of  Tchiakovsky’s Swan Lake click here.

What excites you about life?

New opportunities

How do you nurture your soul?

With beautiful music, great novels and good friends

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

The good thing to wish for would be the rather clichés world peace but on a personal level a long life with good health in which to enjoy it.

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I can spend time with my family, especially if that time is spent in a lovely sunny location with pool and great restaurants near-by.

What are to takeaways from the interview? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed.