“I am a Goddamned Genius. Also, Some Things About Brightroll”
Social media is ready-made for braggadocio, but the likes of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter lack a few things fundamental to the truly un-humble:
- Unlimited audience. Fake-friend networks limit the reach of one’s brilliance.
- Unlimited length. If you have a modicum of self-awareness, you’ll want to bury your boasting in as much excess thought as possible.
Enter Medium. Medium — you’re soaking in it — makes it easy to wrap your windbaggery in the comfortable confines of a theoretical think piece, all while working in the kind of beautiful editing environment that only Ev Williams could provide.
The result? The Sh(ad)ow Off: a submarine brag about as subtle as the word “sh(ad)ow.”
Today brings a classic example in the form of 0 to $640M: Non-obvious Lessons Learned at BrightRoll:
In a post that approaches Kindle Single length — and whose value is about that of a Kindle Single — Tod Sacerdoti takes us through some “lessons” that are actually just brilliant decisions he made. Which is to say: they are lessons for you.
Let’s fix this together. I’ve broken out the extra-large red pen to reduce the extra-large ego.
Nope. You can argue that your amazing exit demonstrates relevance, but I’ll just argue this makes you look like a dick.
Tod spends his first 250 words introducing his “lessons” three separate times — but mostly just reinforcing his bona fides.
The “lessons” are for everyone — but not for Tod.
First of all: no. No one has ever asked “how did you come up with the BrightRoll brand?”
Second: imagine how much better this would read to you if Tod used “we” instead of “I”:
The answer is we found three domain names on GoDaddy, did a quick poll and BrightRoll won. We paid $9 for the domain. Next, we found a cool logo and in a few hours we designed a modified version in Photoshop.
I don’t care if Tod actually did all of that himself. Tod’s not the point of this post — the invaluable lessons are. So whatever lesson this apparently is remains intact. But the focus is no longer on Tod’s superiority.
Sigh.
Love Being Last
Tod’s Last Lesson (That He Already Knew) is a doozy, and sort of worth reading in its entirety — the same way Spanx are sort of worth wearing. “Love Being Last” shows that “true startup leadership” is putting yourself, your needs, your family, etc., last:
At different times you will undoubtedly be the last to leave the office, last to go on vacation, last to paid (sic) a full salary and the list goes on.
The list does not include “last to be counting long-term capital gains thanks to the staggering gap in founder/employee stock option grants.”
As you’d expect, this again does not represent anything Tod actually learned, but rather his inherent abilities that, if you’re lucky, you may be able to imitate.
TL:DR. Tod’s Lessons: Don’t Read.
The Humblifier is an optimist. I am here to teach, to inspire, to impart. Just, apparently, like Tod.
But life doesn’t always work out the way we’d planned. Sometimes humility can’t be edited-in. Some lessons need to be learned early on.
Too late, Tod.
Thus, the fix for 0 to $640M:
