There are some people among the Heavy Twitters (just made that up – no joke) that have the unique ability to get me to stop what I’m doing and actively digest what they say. I’ll glance over to my secondary display or pull out my iPhone while waiting for a meeting to start and I’ll see something that will stop me dead in my tracks or cause my furiously typing fingers to slowly collapse onto the keyboard. There are others who know have a knack for asking just the right question to draw a crowd around the virtual water cooler and get people talking. Chris Guillebeau is both.
About a week ago, this toot from CG came fluttering across my Twitter stream:
Every time someone tells you to ‘be realistic’ they are asking you to compromise your ideals.
I frickin’ love that. I love it despite the fact that I’ve said that to people very recently. If you know Chris, you know that he didn’t find that inside of a fortune cookie he picked up at the Chinese joint on his block. This is the kind of sentiment that comes to a guy who hasn’t ever been paid a salary to sit at a desk. A guy who is flying his white bread ass all over the world, including places that don’t much like us American types. If my Aunt Gertrude told me she was going to parachute into Madagascar to rescue some lemurs, I’d call the men in white coats and figure out what I was going to do with her stuff. If Chris told me that, I’d ask him to bring me back a commemorative spoon and if he needed a ride to the airport.
Credibility is what Chris brings to the table. In a day and age where it’s de rigueur for high-profile bloggers to lob bite-sized hunks of inspiration to their throngs of fans, CG does it the way a guy who has been giving traditional wisdom the bird for well over a decade would do it. If anybody has earned the right to offer advice like that, it’s Chris.
We all have our scars and blemishes – what do yours afford you the right to say? Are you saying it?
You can read more about Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Non-Conformity, or you can become the latest recipient of his Daily Ass Kicking on Twitter.
Disclosure: Chris is a friend of mine and I’m a little gay for him, frankly.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Dude, thanks for the awesome props! I'm flattered. Yes indeed, I could bring you a spoon from Madagascar. Headed there later this year, in fact, although I'm not sure about the lemurs.
Nice new header on the site too. You're doing great and I'm glad to be a small part of it.
cg