Yesterday, at the Blitz! Bangor Area Entrepreneurial Conference, I learned two valuable lesions:
#1: Rabid Gorilla is not ready for the world.
#2: The world is not ready for Rabid Gorilla.
The take away from this is… I learned.
It’s more obvious to me now more than ever that I need a boss. An editor.. Someone to reign me in when I get too manic for my own good.
How on Earth do you go about filling that roll? Who the hell would want that job?
It was a strange day… Here’s the story:
About two months ago, Facebook showed me an ad for this Blitz! Bangor Area Entrepreneurial Conference being put on by an outfit called Upstart! I wasn’t familiar and was pretty suspicious of the whole thing but interested. I looked it up… it seemed for real and as it turns out, it was. Very real.. Maybe too real for me. Bankers and suits… the coffee was good, lunch was dry.. I left before the booze started flowing… I’m curious as to how the day went after I left.
Anyway, I saw the ad and I asked a couple of people if they wanted to go. No one did. I should have left it at that but I follow my gut.. I bought the ticket. What the hell… the world’s ending anyway.
About 48 hours before the event I started working on a flyer to promote myself… I am looking for a professional opportunity… This is the final result. I made six copies and attached them to my two-sided resume.
FRONT SIDE
back SIDE
I also made a brochure for Rabid Gorilla. (The copies I brought had a white background because I couldn’t get edge-to-edge printing in such a short time.. I should have started this weeks ago). Anyway, here’s a better looking version of the brochure:
FRONT SIDE
back SIDE
So, … with my papers in hand and my Rabid Gorilla tee-shirt (and corduroy sports jacket), I went inside with a big ‘ole smile on my face and the world at my feet.
The first person I met was cool… he worked there and he confided in me that he too, had hoped for an opportunity to present itself. We talked a little and I got a coffee.. Found a table.
At the table were three high school seniors who were taking a college class that was attending. They seemed quite bright and together for their age. Recently I have been seeing videos from teachers about how inept and horrible the youth of today are. I didn’t see that at all.
I spoke to a few people .. not very many .. I felt very out of place. I was out of place. I was a drunk guy at a bar talking about the way things ought to be. Not a serious person. At one point, one of the bigger-wigs of the event came and sat at our table to talk with the students. He asked me about my career and I told him the truth… I’ve had probably 35 different jobs over my life and no one should be listening to me for career advice. But I did do one thing I can walk away feeling good about. I told the kids to read How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and I’m telling you the same thing. It’s a good book.
Ya know,… it’s funny… I say that I shouldn’t give life advice but in so many ways I’m happier than so many other, considered ‘more-successful’ people. … I pretty much do what I want all the time. It’s good to be me.
I don’t know anymore… As I sat there, I was wondering what drove me to buy the ticket.. What made me make the website in the first place.. I don’t know my own motivation anymore.
Today I was considering making a video or two… Sometimes I think I can explain myself in a video better than the written word…..Again though.. I have no idea why I’m doing any of this… why breath?
In closing, I’m going to keep going.. And knowing myself, …if I’m being honest, I probably won’t change a thing. I’m going to keep listening to my gut and being the crazy rabid gorilla guy on the street corner raving on about the end of capitalism and the ruin of society.
“Old man yells at cloud.”
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