The Shield

Nothing can stop me!

My Professor is a very rare person. The "shaman of German journalism" (Juliane) is hard to get. I never heard of someone to be called into his office. And he never remembers any names.

But, I am special.
I had an appointment with him. So it had to be serious.

“Ahh! Herr Angermann!”

Our meeting was about the third attempt to get a version of my lawyer text published – the worst scribble I ever sent out. It was bad written. Though I pushed my deadline three times, I still was too late. So, there were complaints about me, being a bad teamplayer, an asshole maybe even a coward.
I could see that coming.
Easy job, it´s like personal crisis-PR.

Haller said he has no confidence in the way I wasted my great talent (!!!) on that particular piece of rubbish. And that I am a bad teamplayer. I took the hits - and didn´t mind.

Shit, every single one of the “no-names” would have been scared in a situation like this. Not me. I was slightly tense, focused but in no ways afraid.

First of all, it took them 6 months to give me shit about my work moral. But, and that was more important to me: I am not scared of the big names. I know, I can handle situations like this. By the way, with all the stuff I pulled in the past few months: DuMont and stuff, how I gave the German media elite a hard time, and also some of my texts (so my psyche text that he adored!) Haller knew of what I am capable.

It took me 15 minutes of talking to convert a major serious trouble situation like this into a triumph. Not only, that he is not mad, no I made clear what I am willing to do and what I (!) will not do!

The outcome: he wants me, to do two reportages. Not as a penalty, “...something I think, you could be interested in.”

If one is normal with a streamline personality nobody will take notice.
I am fatalistic opportunist, a committed cynic and an asshole. But I am not a no-name anymore. Now, I am up in some rarified atmospheres. Nothing can stop me. Not even the head of my institute, my boss, the prototype.

Gods of the Olympus, make space! I am taking it from here.