Quest #9 - Brian Forth's Talk

Despite my disappointment that Brian's talk did not in fact make up the entire quiz the next class day, his talk was very interesting. He spoke about a similar mindset that John Dimmer had, about how his part work experiences helped him build a skill set that allowed him to succeed as an entrepreneur. For John, this was his hopping around various companies that taught him things he felt he would need. For Brian, it was less purposeful, and a more retrospective approach. He found that as he built his business, Sitecrafting, he made use of his past experiences. I like the idea of using your experience as a vehicle for entrepreneurial success.

The biggest thing I took away from the talk was the idea of the "reality distortion field" that you can create as an entrepreneur. Brian described this as being the way that you present things to different people to get them to do what you want. He stressed that lying was never a solution, and that an entrepreneur's success depends on the trust relationships that he or she builds. However, something as simple as discussing a poor sales quarter with your employees can change depending on the distortion field you use. If you approach the situation by talking about the poor sales, people are likely to lose morale. If you tackle it as a temporary setback and look at the pipeline of future work and other positive factors, you completely change your employees' view on the situation. I think this idea is vital to entrepreneurship, because your role is truly to convince others that you are onto something important and valuable. This reality distortion field is a big way to tackle this responsibility.

The story of Brian's business is interesting in and of itself, too. Sitecrafting's growth out of an elementary school classroom is fascinating. In the case of my game development company, it was a very purposeful move, as it is something that all of us are passionate about. In his case, it was more a matter of discovering that there was a market for this talent of his without intending to.

All in all, Brian's perspective on things was enlightening, and something I will keep in mind as I move forward with my own business endeavors.