What Circulation Taught Me
In 1979 when I was made circulation director of PVN(cir 1，900，000)，my prior publishing experience had been as an editor.In my most recent job at the exceptional parent magazine，in addition to being managing editor I also managed its circulation of 20，000.What maniac would hire a person who never seen a spreadsheet，never mailed a direct mail package，and thought of himself as an editor to be the circulation director of a magazine with 1，900，000 circulation？Bob Teufel，the first of my three great teachers.
Bob taught people at Rodale to：
·respect your customers
·respect and learn from coworkers and competitors
·be creative and aggressive
·and that the only test you will regret is the one you don't do
Bob himself had moved from circulation director to president，so he knew that more important than formal training is an aptitude for math and for marketing，a respect for people and brands and an enthusiasm to learn and test.
Bob had the Rodale circulation department work with a consultant named Gordon Grossman-Gordon had been the circulation director and more at the Reader's Digest where he had introduced the sweepstakes，regression analysis and led the transition of circulation from the creative age to the computer age.Gordon taughtus how to think not only about circulation but about business：
·leave no idea unchallenged
·good decisions are impossible if you don't understand the numbers in aggregate and in detail
·and that when you find success be aggressive in capitalizing on it.