My only problem in life and in business is that I am not a hypocrite;

My Point of View/By Rolando Larraz
Those who know me are aware that I believe that the worst part of anyone who is in a position to have one or several people covering for them, such as blocking the entrance to people who do not need to be blocked, people who are not looking for any favors, any money, and or taking sides one way or another, is that they either think they’re so important that they really need to block them all or they never really tell their blockers that they want to get every message, which they can then discard or act upon.
Secretary, adviser, public information officer, or any other name or title they give to those close to the “important person” they work for are the very same people that in most cases hurt the boss more than helping him or her.
That’s the reason I always tell my office that I want to know everything and I remind everyone in the office that I do not like “surprises”; if anyone coughs, I want to know. It is not a matter of control or anything like that; it is a matter of just knowing everything. Just knowing that so-and-so called can be important for me to know.
A friend called me the other day and asked me why I have not been by in so long and I reminded him that I left a message with the secretary to “let me know when you are not too busy so I can stop by.” He was noticeably surprised but did not say anything.
“You know, Rolando, I am very busy and I cannot drop everything when you come in just because you want to talk,” my friend told me.
Luckily, I am very careful not to take it personally and never expect to be “privileged,” to be allowed to interrupt a friend’s super busy
schedule and so I rely on those underlings, even if I, most of the time, don’t rely on the chain of command.
Sometimes I go to the courthouse and if I go into a courtroom and the judge signals me to go to his chamber, I do that, but if I am there
for a few minutes and the judge just says hello, but does not signal me to go to their chamber, I know they are busy and don’t have time
for conversation. If I need to speak about anything related to my business, I normally call first and ask for a few minutes of Your
Honor’s time.
For twenty-three years I have been privileged to enter the chambers and never have I taken that privilege for granted; that is not my
style and that is why I have never had any sad stories to tell; I am very careful never to cross that line and I certainly don’t want to
put the name of the Las Vegas Tribune in jeopardy.
My friend’s secretary may not know that Las Vegas Tribune is a weekly newspaper and if I don’t speak to the boss on Monday, I have another four days to confirm my story, and if I don’t have time to confirm it for this week, there is always next week, because I do not compete with the other newspaper. My friend’s secretary may not know that I treat people as they treat me and I don’t care how “important” someone is; if I don’t like a person their “importance” will not change that.
One time a judge candidate claimed that I wrote a “bad piece” on her and luckily, I never lie (even when I do not tell the truth, I don’t
lie). So I turned to her and told her that it was not true, that I never wrote “bad” about her, I just told the truth. The people who
were throwing a campaign party for her and another judge were using her. She has a good reputation and everyone respects her, but those who were including her in the campaign fundraising were using her by putting her with a corrupt judge so people would go and put money into both campaigns.
My only problem in life and in business is that I am not a hypocrite; either I like you or I don’t like you, but never in between. When I
took sides with Jackie Glass when she decided to run for judge, I supported her all the way and many of the people who were against her,
many of the people who criticized me for backing and supporting her were the same people who, when she became a judge, were sitting at the same table with her at breakfast.
I saw Jackie Glass every day with the same people who were upset with me for supporting her for judge. I even gave her the front page of the Las Vegas Tribune for FREE, because I felt that the bench in that department was better served with Jackie Glass than with the judge who was there for a very long time as well as all the defense attorneys like him.
My name is Rolando Larraz, and as always, I approved this column.
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Rolando Larraz is Editor in Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His column appears weekly in this newspaper. To contact Rolando Larraz, email him at: Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or at 702-272-4634.

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