Reminds me of how we got money for our first servers for Publictivity. We were in between brainstorms and went down to Publix to get beer since we knew it was going to be a late night of mockups/product specs/ brainstorms,etc. It was a couple of weeks before the superbowl and Publix had a "win tickets to the superbowl contest" going on where you had to show that you were a passionate NFL fan for your favorite team. No one else competed, so they asked us two days before the superbowl to go compete in front of a few hundred people + NFL stars to win those tickets. We were pretty excited, because we knew those tickets were worth a few grand. We could use that to pay our server bills+other costs. So, we went. I had the routine of eating a cake in under a minute and getting everybody hyped up. I didn't win. Frank had the routine of shaving the Dolphins logo into his chest and being the number one Dolfan:<p>Video: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/publictivity#p/u/2/DP3WtwwoarE" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/user/publictivity#p/u/2/DP3WtwwoarE</a><p><i>Frank won</i>. We hawked the tickets on the day of the superbowl for about $3,400 or so. It paid for our original servers + development servers for the next year. The money was minimal though helpful, but moreso the story is one worth a whole lot more.
IMO the cleverest part is that "for privacy reasons" he couldn't show any of his work. It reminds me of the woman who conned the Ivy League saying that she changed her name due to domestic abuse. Maybe somewhere there's a guy calling himself the greatest programmer in the world, but he can't answer any interview questions because it's all classified.
That level of lying would be too painful for me, even given the success that might come from it. As an engineer whose job it is to make reliable systems, I have strong feelings about the truth. I don't want to behave like that, and I don't want to be around people who do.
> "Man, you’re a good bullshitter," I say. "You knew that about me already," he says.<p>This guy deliberately lies to "friends" simply because it <i>might</i> benefit him someday. At best he's a drinking buddy; the author would be out of his mind to actually trust him.
Did I ever tell you about my first startup? We did top secret project for the US government and sold to a branch of the government for about $100 million.<p>The name? Oh, I can't <i>tell</i> you the name. That's top secret!
Contrary to what this story is trying to teach us, I think the real lesson here is that it's all about who you know. The key phrase was: <i>"I liked the story so much I pitched the idea to a jour na list friend of mine"</i>. Yes, he needed a good story or something remarkable to pitch to his journalist friend, but it was his network of connections that ultimately helped his young, film maker friend.
Whether this is entirely true or not, surely the underlying message worth noting is that you can give the <i>impression</i> you are more successful than you are. This, of course, translates to the business/startup world where perception matters.<p>Regardless of the truthfulness of the story, I think there's something worth taking away here. (And it's pretty funny!)
Anyone creative and determined enough to come up with a lie like that to get around barriers and break into a business, would have creative enough to come up with an alternate route that doesn't involve lying.