Pando Daily founder Sarah Lacy remembers working for Memphis Business Journal editor Bill Wellborn in a first-person essay on the newspaper’s website.
Lacy writes, “You always knew where you stood with Bill. It may not feel good, but there was no mystery. And when he believed in you, it felt so much more amazing because Bill wasn’t a man who just told you what you wanted to hear.
“After graduation, he told me there was only one beat available: banking and finance. He also told me it was typically the senior reporter’s beat. There wasn’t a beat at the paper for which I was less qualified, so I assumed he was planning to promote someone into that position and hand me their rookie job.
“‘Do you think you can handle it?’ he asked instead.
“I looked into that stone-cold Bill Wellborn poker face. When he wore that expression, no one could tell what he was thinking, and he looked like he could stay that way all day until you talked. I was clear on one thing: I couldn’t remotely handle this beat.
“‘Totally,’ I said.
“‘Good,’ he replied. ‘I think you can too.’
“A year later, Wellborn would change my career even more dramatically. He walked up to my desk and slammed down a copy of The Wall Street Journal. On the front page was a story about venture capital.”
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