I’m not that strong!
Frédéric Fougerat, President of Tenkan Paris and co-founder of Cogiteurs, accepted the challenge of Sébastien Beaujault, social media and digital strategy consultant, trainer, social network coach and founder, to dedicate himself to his blog Secret Thoughts. That gives the platform I’m not that strong on. In this exercise, Frédéric Fougerat was subjected to a constraint that frames the sentence: “The first day of the rest of my life”.
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Life holds many surprises, especially for people who, like me, have not planned their journey and proceed more on instinct, opportunity, affect…
Even if my professional career seems quite simple (15 years managing elective offices and public communications, then 20 years communications management for international corporations), this is not the case.
First of all, the decision to give up my law studies to get into free broadcasting was a more than risky bet, which only the carelessness of young people allows.
Without any academic training or the slightest diploma, the doors to employment were not wide open to me. But it was the public communication that appealed to me and saw me as a communications professional because I came from a radio station.
What were my skills back then? This is how I work, I learn, I become a useful and reassuring professional companion, through his availability, his dedication, his openness, his loyalty, his imperturbable spirit (in demeanor), his assertive character, essential for the respect of presidents and executives is.
By choosing to serve leaders, I also chose to be a teammate. Do not confuse yourself with the caliph, but with the caliph. Know how to keep your place. Know how to keep secrets.
Understand that loyalty and fidelity are more valuable than expertise gained through experience.
I will use the same principles to shape the rest of my private sector career. 20 years in 6 international groups, 5 of them with the same President.
That is also fidelity and loyalty. 20 years of very hard work. An absolute obligation. A total investment for the companies whose image and reputation I was responsible for.
20 years in which I could be envied: “Travelling around the world several times a month, that’s a great life.” Who would have thought how tiring and exhausting it is to travel the world? Europe, China, India, Middle East, United States… Who has ever wondered how it feels to be permanently jet lagged but to stay awake and smiling every day and under all circumstances and your cases in Paris and up around the world to track? ?
20 years of being admired: “Whaou, another award, another number one ranking… and from Forbes at that!” “. But who knows what the prize is?
20 years in which I was sometimes considered a superhero: “How do you manage to do your job, write books, be hyperactive on social networks, chain TVs and radio studios…?” “. But who would have thought that the energy, that carries me, also gradually ruining my health, morally exhausted?That every TV appearance makes me sick, but vice versa, that writing books is not a job for me at all, but a liberation from the flood of ideas that burden me and which I therefore evacuate?
In reality, nothing is as simple as it seems. What is certain is that we are often much weaker than others might think. But looking strong is part of the game.
That sometimes pushes some people to do drugs, which I haven’t done, or to seek counseling from psychologists and psychiatrists, which I did to persevere and persevere. The company’s poor impression is probably the first concern for executives, who also often confuse weakness with fragility. Anyway, you must look strong! …
Find the end and read Frédéric Fougerat’s entire column on the Secret Thoughts of Sébatien Beaujault blog.
Photo: Frédéric Fougerat / Credit: Patrick Gaillardin
