Always Confident – Occasionally Informed
I first met Harry[i]Not his real name, of course in the late 1960s, shortly after he had taken his first Company public. Later, he became very helpful in my first start-up venture, and we stayed in touch over the years that followed. A decade or so later, he called one day to ask my advice on another venture that he was about to undertake. Access control, using RF identification was in its early stages at that time and his prior experience was a perfect match.
I was working with NIR at the time so, being anxious to help, but without much careful thought, I tried to persuade him to use light[ii]In the broader sense, understanding that IR is not visible instead of an electrostatic field for the data transmission. He was right of course to reject my suggestions, so I missed out on an opportunity to learn more from him,[iii]To this day I don’t have a thorough grasp of field theory, and I have only myself to blame for that and he went on to build a very successful Company that was later acquired for well into eight figures.
I put forth this little story as a prelude to make the point that, in my youth, I also have been guilty of some of the behaviors that I will describe next.
Harry had three sons, and all three worked for me on the farm from time to time as they each advanced through their teenage years. They were all good kids who worked hard and went on to be successful in their own endeavors.
One in particular – we will call him David – was unusually ambitious and energetic. I don’t want to use the word, obnoxious, but he seemed to feel like he needed to be in the middle of every conversation, always talking, rarely listening, representing himself as the authority on every subject, and loudly putting forth his opinions, whether or not his advice was being sought. My mom would have classified him as “a know-it-all” – she had a way with words after all. At sixteen or eighteen years old, of course, he knew next to nothing about the World around him, and the fact that he was usually talking instead of listening meant he was a slow-learner. It was hard for him to learn from others, but that didn’t keep his omnipresence from annoying everyone around him – truly a loose-cannon sort of guy.
Harry, much like my mother, also had a way with words. When he would occasionally refer to David as “Always Confident – Occasionally Informed”, we all laughed and David would push out his chest and storm off in defiance, but he just kept being David for as long as I knew him after that.
I never had the opportunity to share this story with Harry or David, but I occasionally pass it on to a teenager who happens to be full of himself or herself and overinflated with hot air.