What I Think About Awards / Winning Competitions
A reflection on the strange incentives behind pitch competitions and creating things that people actually care about.
After competing in various pitch competitions, and discussing thoughts with competitors and peers on this subject, it often feels like we're just playing a game with the rules set by an unfamiliar entity — the outcome decided by how well you play your role in it.
Some show AI-generated images to represent their very real “prototypes.”
Some present ideas that will likely never come to fruition but — “Oh look! Look at our scale! Our big TAM (Total Addressable Market)! Think about how much money we could make for you!” (pitching to investors/judges).
Some just straight up lie and make claims they can't back up (and get caught in the act of it).
And others are truly passionate about their problem, seeking a solution, yet not playing the game just right — and losing because of it.
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| Figure 1. 3rd @ Aggies Invent, Sandia National Labs (no hair era) |
I've done my fair share of these competitions and have won a few too (note above), but I see some people winning these competitions, and hackathons, and keep winning and winning them… but never actually developing anything for users afterwards. I don’t think I could keep doing that. It’s just no fun without feedback and room for growth (besides in public speaking, I guess).
I think that’s the difference between controlled risk — especially in these academic environments — and actual risk people take when building companies or building projects in public.
Maybe that’s the gap I’m a little afraid to cross too, when people (the public) really get to see who you are, and people inevitably make judgements and opinions on the things you post or create. It scares me a little, I’ll be honest here. Not the part about engaging an audience and telling a story (that’s the part I love about this challenge), but the part about getting the answer to:
“Who really cares?”
…about your projects, your story, your thoughts.
Now, I’m not saying you should care all that much about what people think in determining your own worth. But it would be nice to feel that in this ephemeral lifetime of ours, we’re doing at least… something… right.
But I won’t let this stop me — I’ve never been someone who backs down from a good challenge.