"Writing Wednesdays" #2: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

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My first real job was in advertising.  I worked as a copywriter for an agency called Benton & Bowles in New York City.  An artist or entrepreneur's first job inevitably bends the twig.  It shapes who you'll become.  If your freshman outing is in journalism, your brain gets tattooed (in a good way) with who-what-where-when-why, fact-check-everything, never-bury-the-lead.  If you start out as a photographer's assistant, you learn other stuff.  If you plunge into business on your own, the education