How to Scam Your Way to Success, Brian Brushwood, DevLearn 2012

Another keynote session I attended while at DevLearn 2012 was put on by Brian Brushwood. I think my tweet after the session sums up pretty well what Brian said:

This is what I learned from Brian Brushwood:

• You don't actually have to do what you say you're going to do -- you just have to make it look that way
• If you're charismatic enough, you can get a bunch of people to help you fake your way to success
• People don't seem to care if you've actually done what you said you'd do ... it's enough as long as it seems like everyone else thinks you've done it

Brian's presentation was entertaining for sure. He even ate fire. But overall I thought it was bologna. True success isn't faked. The irony is that I agree with Brian -- true success of actual substance often doesn't matter. I've noticed that since entering my profession 12 years ago there are a lot of people who talk a big game and work hard to keep up a fake persona and actually experience a lot of success that way. They create a lot of buzz around big ideas and cruise on that buzz until they get distracted and move on with the next big fuzzy idea without executing on previous commitments. I've complained about this in a previous post before, so I won't bore you anymore.

However, I reject that concept as meaningful and hope to seek a more substantive, if not lucrative or lauded, success with hard work, actual results, and concrete accomplishments.