Badass Brothers
"tmrw we will hopefully take a tap class so one day we will tap on our enemies grave... we are badass brothers thanks 2 our parents".
My brother, Samuel wrote the above and some more on the back of a Brotherhood of Death postcard quite fitting.
To find more praise for Sam read here, or watch this homage, and now for some more perspective on one pair of the badass brothers.
In the past 3 years that I've worked at the same company as my brother I've seen that you can do things! It's easy to be inhibited and let perfection prevent you from trying. This fear does not stop Sam.
A non exhaustive list of things Sam has done:
- Took his song writing talents and used them to make a variety of work related beats
- Ran at least 2 pickle eating contests including video conferencing to involve other offices (tangentially related he's also created a pickle portrait that lives in one of our uncle's studio)
- Organized company holiday party including catering
- Organized company picnic with a potato sack race, and a 3 legged race
- Was responsible for reviewing and sourcing backend interns which resulted in a return offer
- One of the most prolific company demoers
- Ran training on how to demo
- Organized going away happy hours for colleagues
- Volunteered and led backend guild which provided technical talks on a recurring basis
- Led the charge to create hackathon shirts and delivered them to everyone
- Led two hackathon teams
Even though Sam has relatively little experience in the industry, and doesn't have extensive experience event planning he's not afraid to jump in and take initiative. Tons of people at work have had positive social experiences thanks to the efforts that Sam has undertaken. Even though Sam is not in the position to plan holiday parties or picnics he jumps at the opportunity.
There's also a risk of taking on all of these initiatives. People can develop the perception that you don't work hard enough, or that you aren't focused enough on your tasks. It's true that there is finite time, and resources yet it's also the case that not every second is filled with productivity. Additionally, Sam is often taking additional time outside of work to further these initiatives.
Independent of the specifics I can learn to take more chances, be less worried about perfection and think that in a lot of cases something is better than nothing. In the case of Sam the badass brother it's an exceptional mix of outstanding achievements.