Reflection 15 of 52: When does self-deprecation work?
April 14, 2014
At 23,
Brian Wong looks like he is twelve. One of my colleagues commented on his
youthful appearance with exactly that reference at a conference where he was
one of the speakers.
When he
leapt onto the stage... and I mean leapt, he looked even younger in real life.
The first
words out of his mouth were something like this… "I bet you are wondering how a
skinny Asian guy who looks like he is 12 can teach you anything!"
It was a
surprising yet delightful start to his speech. As a speaker, knocking yourself
can be disastrous but that was not the case here. This exceptionally smart and
confident man put any perceived negatives to rest, fast.
His story
starts with graduating from high school at 14, a university degree in commerce
by 18, and has been launching internet companies ever since. His current
venture is Kiip, (pronounced keep) an achievement based reward program for
online companies to connect to their customers in a more meaningful way than
advertising. (check it out here)
While his
company is intriguing, I was more fascinated by his presentation style and
presence. I can see why he was successful at getting venture capital funding to
the tune of some $15 million. He had a swagger that was totally endearing. He
made fun of people in the audience (usually another no-no in public speaking)
but in such a way it was just plain funny. Teasing people of a certain vintage
for not knowing current jargon – “FOMO – that’s ‘fear of missing out’ for those
of you over 50”.
At one
point when he was showing a video he plopped down on the stage and sat
cross-legged (in jeans!) watching his own show. Most of the middle aged crowd
groaned with jealousy. He talked about
things he did when he was much younger… last year.
His
passion escalated when he started to talk about facial recognition and how to
create happiness through his work.
Funny how
fast people forgot about his age and appearance and were caught up with his
ideas and fearless approach to business. He looked more hip by the minute.
Over
confidence can be off-putting and yet compelling at the same time. Think of
Steve Jobs as the 23 year old college drop out who got millions of investment
dollars despite showing up barefoot and smelly. He refused to wear deodorant or
shower more than once a week. I remember the first 60 Minutes interview with
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and wondered if this arrogant young guy would
survive.
I love
the Brian Wongs of this world for they remind us to break the rules. We get
normalized by the “do’s and don't’s” taught over the years and while they can
smooth out our rough edges, they can take away the bright, sharp bits.
His
approach to poking a bit of fun at his obvious youth worked like a hot damn.
Not always the case when people over 50 go on about being dinosaurs. He used
his supposed negative to spotlight how much he achieved by the ripe old age of
23.
His
business concept is to create moments of achievement and happiness through
rewards. Delight the consumer.
He was
delightful. Full stop.
Posts
2 comments
Della, great post. We all need to look at our lives and realize it is important to take what we do seriously, but not take ourselves seriously. The more risks you can take and be comfortable with the outcomes (whatever they may be), I think the happier we will all be looking back at the end of a career. Some people find this out sooner than later. . . I am STILL LEARNING:-).
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the post.
Ben
Ben, we are all still learning. Appreciate your thoughts.
ReplyDelete