{"id":1238,"date":"2012-09-03T20:52:06","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T01:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/?p=1238"},"modified":"2012-11-02T13:09:56","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T18:09:56","slug":"jumping-jim-and-the-secret-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/2012\/09\/03\/jumping-jim-and-the-secret-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Jumping Jim and the Secret Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Jumping Jim Brunzell\u00a0is\u00a0profiled<\/a> in\u00a0a\u00a0fine where-are-they-now article\u00a0from Debra Neutkens of Press Publications,\u00a0offering nostalgia for\u00a0Saturday morning\u00a0wrestling fans and a useful\u00a0first-day-of-school\u00a0reminder for students and teachers.<\/p>\n

Mr. Brunzell is only 5’10” and pretty much bereft of the macho\u00a0swagger<\/a>\u00a0that characterizes the profession, yet he parlayed his secret advantage into three decades of professional wrestling success. You see, Jumping Jim could sky<\/em>.\u00a0A high jumper on\u00a0his high school\u00a0track team, Mr. Brunzell’s 36″ vertical leap was\u00a0beautiful to behold in the ring.\u00a0Possessed of the finest dropkick in the business, he earned a\u00a0reputation as an athletic “high flyer” in\u00a0an era\u00a0of earthbound plodders.*\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike Mr. Brunzell,\u00a0we academics often\u00a0fail to capitalize on our secret advantages.\u00a0A good advisor or editor, however, can sometimes\u00a0help\u00a0us ferret them out.\u00a0Whether you’ve worked\u00a0as a lobbyist or a farmer, traveled the world in a military family or a circus, or graduated from\u00a0an elite prep school\u00a0or the juvenile justice system, you’ve likely\u00a0gained knowledge and perspective\u00a0that\u00a0will\u00a0interest other scholars and readers. Our job is to help you learn what’s news and how best\u00a0to analyze and communicate it. Sometimes the\u00a0biggest\u00a0hurdle\u00a0is just\u00a0convincing you that the rest of the world\u00a0doesn’t know about\u00a0a phenomenon or process you’d taken for granted — and\u00a0that\u00a0you\u00a0might be\u00a0the\u00a0best person in the world to tell the story.<\/p>\n

Secret advantages of this sort can\u00a0arise from tastes, experiences, aptitudes, ascribed characteristics, or plain dumb luck. To really\u00a0exploit them, however,\u00a0you\u00a0need\u00a0to take inventory: write down where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and how you might use it. And don’t brush off compliments too quickly — especially when\u00a0editors or advisors\u00a0tell you that you’re onto something or that\u00a0some insight you shared was completely, refreshingly, and delightfully\u00a0new to them. Pay special attention\u00a0when you\u00a0hear imaginary “air italics” in the compliment\u00a0(e.g., “you’re really <\/em>good on this” or “I’ve <\/em>never seen anyone<\/em> make that connection”).<\/p>\n

What if nobody supports or compliments you, you’ve\u00a0taken inventory, and you’re still coming up empty? Well, we’ve all been there<\/em> — at least until someone\u00a0convinced us we might have something interesting to say.\u00a0Just go with your strengths and use what you’ve got, even\u00a0if it doesn’t fit the prototypical mold.\u00a0Who knows? You might be creating the new prototype.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0I couldn’t find a good highlight clip, but you can witness\u00a0Mr. Brunzell dropkick a future governor at about 1:48\u00a0of this Phil Donahue\u00a0deconstruction<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jumping Jim Brunzell\u00a0is\u00a0profiled in\u00a0a\u00a0fine where-are-they-now article\u00a0from Debra Neutkens of Press Publications,\u00a0offering nostalgia for\u00a0Saturday morning\u00a0wrestling fans and a useful\u00a0first-day-of-school\u00a0reminder for students and teachers. Mr. Brunzell is only 5’10” and pretty much bereft of the macho\u00a0swagger\u00a0that characterizes the profession, yet he parlayed his secret advantage into three decades of professional wrestling success. You see, Jumping Jim could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/files\/2012\/09\/brunzell3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}