- Kurd Liquer
Once I ate a giant hamburger. It has six enormous patties. I think it probably weighed about 6 pounds, and that wasn't all. I had a bunch of fries and a drink to go with it. See, they had this eating challenge. If you ate the whole thing in under 30 minutes, you got it for free AND got your picture up on the wall.
I'd brought along my family plus the whole company and offered to pay for anyone willing to give it a try.
It started out OK, even delicious, but about half way through it quickly turned into the worst experience of my life. I have never given birth to a child. I've heard its pretty bad, but I full on believ that shoveling all that dry, nasty meat into my gullet for the longest 30 minutes of my life is worse!
I didn't quit though. I mean, for one thing, I had the whole team, who'd all long since given up on their own eating challenges, standing around watching me, and my family cheeing me on. So with all that, I just couldn't let go of the need to succeed.
I think we all have a part of us that can't back down from a good challenge.
Anyway, I wriggled and danced, paced, sweat and drank a LOT of water to wash it down, but finally squeezed all of that cardboard-meat down my expandable esophogas just as the the timer went off.
Success!!! I'm sure my family and co-workers enjoyed it, but as for me, all I remember is trying to keep it all in as they were taking a picture of what must have been my least photogenic moment. I could't really focus on the camera. It was like the meat was pushing on the backs of my eyeballs making them bulge from their socket and blurring my vision.
"Congratulations!" they said after they snapped the shot. "You've done it! Now, here's a garbage can. Take it out back and puke all you want."
My kids still talk about it. "Remember that time when daddy ate that giant hamburger and then threw up?"
To be clear, I don't recommend anyone taking on this particular challenge. As I said, it was one of the worst experiences in my life, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But I AM glad that I did it, now that it's all behind me, and I'm even MORE glad that I beat it.
Aaah, the power of 'the Challenge.'
If presented just right, it can be a super effective way to motivate a team.
One thing I've learned being a leader is that teams LIKE deadlines. They like having agressive goals to work toward.
Not when they're overwhelming or seem impossible, but everyone likes a good challenge! So if you can find a good balance there, and break things into achievable, well defined milestones, and instill that drive to succeed, it can make the journey toward the finish line a lot of fun.
Kenn update: I’m happy to report that we’re only a few models away from having ALL of our cut-scene characters and props modeled. We’ve got our AI class system prototyped including about half of our bosses and we’ve got our visual style nearly ironed out. I can’t wait to post what we’ve got soon!
And finally, here's a pic of Sharlene...
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