Fraser Bullock is the ultimate “we” person.Good luck, I thought, when Lauren Gustus began on stage trying to pin down The Salt Lake Tribune’s NewsMaker of the Year on his singular successes in saving the 2002 Olympics and winning the bid this summer for the 2034 Games.If you’ve had the pleasure of a conversation with him, never mind an interview, you might have an idea of the challenge The Trib’s executive editor and CEO had taken on to get Bullock to acknowledge what he has accomplished alone, all by himself, what no one else could, thank you very much.And good luck, I thought, to Bullock seated with his longtime friend Jeff Flake, the ex-senator and ambassador, singing his praises. I mean, how does the NewsMaker of the Year get through this without taking that well-deserved bow for his leadership? Gustus would not let up. I knew that, too.So you bet I recorded the interview last Thursday from my seat. I thought I might write about it later, as I am now. But mainly it was for the life lessons. I never fail to learn from him at a level beyond whatever it is we are talking about, generally Utah’s Olympic story in one of its many, many iterations.I’d best confess here: I’m an unabashed fan boy who by nature doesn’t go in for that.To him, I can only be some rube who landed a minute ago at a local-yokel mountain paper and subs in occasionally on Olympic stories when the regular reporter can’t make it. I always introduce myself, though by now he knows my name and never fails to bring me into his orbit for that precious moment or two while we speak.My first lesson came shortly after I arrived in Park City. An introduction by text and then a briefing over the phone delivered with a great deal of patience, especially with the inevitable dumb questions that weren’t taken as such. You see, educating journalists is key. He told me that. Let’s just say there are a few lesser leaders in town, every town, who would benefit from that wisdom.“People say that we wouldn’t have the Games back here in 2034 if not for you …,” Gustus started.“Well, I’d like to clarify,” he said after waiting patiently for her to finish asking about the past year for him, some of the key moments behind the scenes, and how the state reached this point today, eyeing a busy decade of preparation that will pass quickly.“One thing is I’m one member of the team,” he said. He talked first about his family, then the Eccles family, and the Legacy Foundation that Utah almost alone among Olympics hosts has managed as a means to further the Games through upkeep of the facilities and development of the next generations of athletes. He worked the circle ever outward to the public’s support and landed on Utah’s lauded volunteerism.“Team Utah is what brought the Games back,” he said. “It’s the fulfillment of a dream for 22 years.”Then an “I” moment, but did it qualify? “When I look back on July 24, which was the key day, the day of our award, I felt relief because I didn’t want to let anybody down. But I (also) felt tremendous satisfaction because the Games are a gift to the world, and we get to give that gift again. … What a privilege that we get to do it because it’s the biggest thing in the world, the most unifying thing in the world.”You see what I’m saying.  He told a story about picking up the phone when Mitt Romney called. He said he was just a business guy then, thinking he had the ultimate turnaround challenge.“I didn’t understand the power, the power to do good,” he remembered.I’ve covered some of the Olympic bid moments and edited stories from others over the past year. He was the leader of the bid effort along with other obviously very talented individuals who I’m sure came in sharing these values and ideals. Maybe he’s the guy who reminds everyone of this, so that even in a cynical age the message from all of them comes across as simply the truth.I think of him as Utah’s Olympics whisperer. The Games are all about all of us finding our higher selves, he says in words and under the words. Speaking of cynical, I find this remarkable considering the mess he stepped into following the bribery scandal unearthed so close to staging 2002, and if that weren’t enough, 9/11 happening four and half months before the Games began.“I remember at 4 a.m. putting up the snow fencing at Grizzly (Snowbasin’s Olympic downhill course) in a storm,” he told Gustus. “But you bring together the right people, and you create the right culture and environment where people love working together in a common cause for good. That’s what made all the difference.”There it is, then, a synopsis that comes as close I’ve heard to how I did it, framed at just a little distance as what you do. As close as she would get.  There was a quip from the audience around then about lots of hot dogs, the most ubiquitous of the food offerings at the 2002 Games. They got them for a song, one of many ways of whittling down a $600 million deficit into eventually a $100 million or so profit, one of the practical steps.He said the details that go into putting on a Games add up to innumerable. They’ll spend close to $3 billion in spending on 2034, drum up around 25,000 volunteers in a state where support runs between 80% and 89% for the effort. Governments will be motivated to improve infrastructure, and most important to Bullock, I’m wagering from listening to him more than once, are the kids who will be inspired not only to compete as athletes, but from the Olympic ideal more generally.I don’t find Bullock’s humility of the aw shucks, posing kind you sometimes encounter. I talked with him briefly afterward. I might have said, “Don Rogers, Park Record,” to his patient smile, but we know each other well enough by now.The “me” in Bullock’s Olympian effort goes back to answering Romney, I believe. This is the stuff of faith, higher purpose and knowing in your heart you are one instrument doing what you were called to do. That’s a lesson we all can take. Thanks Fraser.Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at [email protected] or (970) 376-0745.The post Journalism Matters: The big lesson from Olympian quests appeared first on Park Record.