What I learned from winning 'Best TV Personality' at age 23

In September 2010, I was named "Best TV Personality" in the annual Best of the Permian Basin Reader's Choice competition held by the Odessa American newspaper.

I was 23 years old at the time and had only lived and worked in Odessa since June of 2008.

How did a rookie news reporter win this designation while going up against veteran news anchors?

News anchors like Tatum Hubbard and Jay Hendricks had been on TV in Odessa for years and were actually from the west Texas region.

Reporters like Eddie Garcia and Stephanie Rivas had certainly been on-air longer than me.

Craig Stewart was the affable weatherman who could always put a smile on your face. He was local and well known.

I had been there less than two years and was from Pennsylvania.

The answer: I was the only contestant who campaigned.

Any news personality in the Permian Basin (basically Odessa, TX and Midland, TX) was eligible to win the Reader's Choice award and there were about 12-15 news personalities at each of the three television stations in the area.

So, I was going up against approximately 36-45 other broadcasters. This included main news anchors, fellow reporters, the weather folks (meteorologists), sports anchors, and even morning show hosts.

But when I found out that you could email the survey to anyone in the country (or in the world, for that matter) because it was all online, I really ran with it.

I crafted a short email that I could copy and paste over and over again and sent it out to virtually every member of my family.

I sent the same note to former coworkers, friends from high school, people I knew from college, and even business contacts, such as people I had interviewed in Texas thus far in my early career.

The whole process took a couple hours, spread out over a few weeks.

Then, I didn't really think anything of it.

A few months later I got the news that CBS 7 (KOSA TV) had won the overall "Best TV Station" award and that I had won "Best TV Personality".

It was thrilling to learn of this and our ownership group took out a full-page ad in the Odessa American to celebrate and promote our victories.

However, after the initial excitement of learning about the win, I didn't feel so great.

I began to realize what I had done, albeit unintentionally.

Yes, emailing the survey to everyone I knew was legal.

Yes, it was within the parameters of the rules.

No, I did not technically do anything wrong whatsoever.

But, what had my actions meant for me "politically" inside that newsroom?

How did Jay Hendricks, Tatum Hubbard, Stephanie Rivas, or Krista Escamilla feel about this newbie 23 year old winning this award?

I mean come on, everyone knew that there was virtually zero chance that I was even well-known enough to truly have been voted Best TV Personality solely by the local news viewers of Odessa-Midland.

It would have been highly, highly unlikely.

At the end of the day, this recognition lacked authenticity.

It also might have left a bad taste in the mouth of my more seasoned colleagues at my very first job out of college!

Probably not very smart —?not the right move for the longterm.

So, I had to ask myself: was this worth it?

Was it fun to win? Absolutely.

But was it worth it at the expense of undermining the years of experience and hard work from my colleagues, who I was ostensibly there to learn from?

No, no, it was not.

This was an early lesson for me in my career and it's 50% of the reason why I decided to have this ad framed and keep it near my home office.

The other 50% is that It's a reminder that, yes, I can achieve great things at any age. That yes, I am creative and an out of the box thinker, at all times. It's a reminder that I am resourceful and I advocate for myself.

But it's also a reminder that personal accolades and recognitions are not everything. They're not even all that important, in the end. But working towards synergy and effective collaboration with your colleagues is something worth celebrating.

Would you rather win an award and have your coworkers rolling their eyes behind your back OR not win any award but have the respect and admiration of your coworkers?

Seems like an easy choice, in retrospect.

(to be clear, I don't have any evidence that anyone was rolling their eyes or even upset by my Best TV Personality award, this is all just my own perception and paranoia talking)

Being the type of employee and team member who does not constantly seek credit and who does not undermine others for own benefit — that is something worth striving for.

I won't lie —?I'm a competitive person and it's not always easy to embody this lesson.

But I cherish lessons like this from the early stages of my career and I think we continue to learn things like this throughout every stage of our professional lives.

The key is to be willing to reflect on our experiences and to be open to realizing that we might have erred.

Short term errors can lead to longterm lessons and I'm grateful for that.

Truth is — I doubt that any of my colleagues from CBS 7 at the time even remember this — and if they do – I suspect they don't dwell on it whatsoever.

But, it certainly stuck with me.

And thankfully, those colleagues were all true professionals who never complained or showed any form of jealously or derision toward me whatsoever.

It was just my own reflection and attempt at empathy that brought me to the conclusions I've shared here.

I cherish the friendships and relationships with my colleagues that I had during my time in Odessa from 2008 to 2011 and will always remember what I learned in that newsroom and how I grew.