May the Brian Forth be With You

I know the title is abysmal but believe me when I say it (at least sort of) has a good meaning. Considering I missed the second guest lecturer, he was the first entrepreneur I’ve seen that was actively doing something technological. This was extremely comforting since he was the first person I’ve seen in the class who’s been successful based more on technological ability and less on charisma. I don’t doubt that he is very charismatic but when I see Andrew Fry or Erik Hanberg I see business men first and “nerds” second. This started to become defeating for me since I know my strength lies almost entirely in my abilities and significantly less in my ability to be convincing in a sale or a business meeting. That’s the reason that I moved from a business major to a computer science major. The comfort matters because it showed me that my shortcomings don’t prevent me from being able to develop and run a company.  I mean his company doesn’t even have any salesman. They seem to only need people who are able to develop a good product. I’m not sure if that speaks more to Brian’s sales ability (countering my point entirely) or if it says more of what I want it to say which is businesses aren’t run on sales alone but rather the product being sold. I feel much more comfortable because someone who seems just as nerdy as I am can successfully run a business. This means that someday maybe I can be as successful as him. I’m not sure if that’s how it has always been or if that’s something that has recently been adopted by the world. Either way, I really enjoyed that he spends so much time thinking about how exactly everybody thinks. He thinks about how the culture of the company is changing, he thinks how the employees feel they can communicate with him, he thinks how each project will be different (from the quote he gave “no one man can stand in the same river twice”) and how all of that will affect the company. Maybe I’m just misunderstanding what it means to be a business man. Maybe he doesn't need the same level of outward flowing charisma because he doesn't need to “sell” you on something because there’s no convincing that need be done since he already has all of the answers.