Am I a Guru?
Recently I got pulled up on the use of the word Guru. I was talking about how I am seen in the gamification world and had said that I am seen as a guru and an expert. Now I immediately regretted this as it sounded highly pretentious. The trouble was I was put on the spot and just had no other words to say, my mind went blank and I defaulted to the use of words that others had used to describe me — not words I tend to use when describing myself. I have usually gone with Gamification Evangelist and at a professional push, an expert.
I checked out what Guru really means and it has two accepted meanings. Hindu Teacher and influential teacher or popular expert. Well, I am certainly not the former, but people view me as the latter. I have a blog that people have told me they like and find useful, I have spend a lot of time at the top of the Gamification Gurus leaderboard, do numerous talks on the subject, run workshops, lectured for various courses in gamification and have had my work used in everything from PhD research to gamified product design.
I am not sure that this puts me into fully fledged influential teacher or popular expert, but I feel it does put me near there. The fact that others have decided to bestow the title of guru or expert on me gives me a little confidence that I am doing something right.
Will I deliberately call myself a guru again, I hope not as I truly do not see myself as one. However, I won’t be offended if others want to call me it and I feel honoured that they hold my in such high regard.
