The Best Advice

Dixie Divas #97

People sometimes ask me what’s the best advice I’ve ever gotten. There are lots of strong candidates.

“Pretty is as pretty does,” Mama said.

“A man who’ll lie to you, will steal from you,” Daddy promised.

“When a crash happens in front of you, floor it and drive right toward it because it’ll slide somewhere else by the time you get there,” Dale Earnhardt said. I use that one a lot.

“Don’t worry over the things that hard work and money can replace,” Daddy instructed. “Worry over the things they can’t.”

“Don’t fry bacon without a shirt on,” Macko the Grader warned.

But the best advice?

That came from my buddy, Leo Honeycutt, of the famous Louisiana Honeycutts, both those in prison and out.

We met a few years ago when Leo interviewed me for his morning television show in Baton Rouge. As I recall — though Leo doesn’t — he wasn’t thrilled, for some reason, about having me as a guest. By the time the show ended, however, we were great friends. So great that we filmed an entire one hour show together to play the following Sunday and that evening, he sat front row and center at the event where I spoke.

On a later trip back to Baton Rouge, Leo, who had hosted an exceptionally good documentary on the 1934 assassination of Senator Huey Long, took me footstep by footstep through Long’s final walk from the legislative chambers of the Louisiana Capitol down the corridor where he encountered the bullets that would lead to his encounter with death. I listened to Leo’s commentary as we walked down the backstairs where Long, bleeding profusely, had stumbled out the back door, hailed a cab and traveled the short distance to a nearby hospital.

I not only like Leo. I trust him. So, when I got ready to host my first television special — a behind-the-scenes look at the Daytona 500 — I called Leo for advice. He promptly sat down and wrote out my instructions in a lengthy epistle. But one piece of adamant advice especially jumped out from the pages.

“Make friends — good friends — with your cameraman. He can make you look good or bad.” Leo related a personal experience where he and the cameraman had been nemeses, resulting in unflattering footage and problems for Leo.

I listened, followed Leo’s advice and soon found my own cameraman suggesting different lighting situations and better angles for flattering photography. The cameraman, behind the scenes, was more crucial in producing interesting, good-looking footage than I was as the on-camera talent. Leo’s wisdom worked.

At first blush, it may seem like specific advice for specific situations but it’s actually pretty broad. Make friends — good friends — with the support folks because they’re the ones who will make you look good. Or bad, if they so choose.

The chairman of a committee will only be as successful as the efforts put forth by the committee members. A doctor is aided by nurses and technicians while writers are enhanced by editors, headline writers and books are made through sales, marketing and publicity. We are all, regardless of who we are or what we do, dependent on the supportive efforts of others.

Leo Honeycutt was right. Success in life is not a solitary venture for any person. It is a commingling of talents, efforts and skills. It’s teamwork.

Ready for your close-up?