

Peter Molyneux Blames Success on Baked Beans - jdeastwood
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/apr11/04-15Molyneux.mspx

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dools
All successful people have had a "lucky break". The difference between them
and the one's that never make it are: they had the skills, confidence and
dedication to make the most of the break.

It's not true to say that one creates one's own luck, but it is true to say
that one creates the success from a lucky incident.

This is why you can't say that someone who succeeds, say, in their early 20s
is necessarily more talented than someone who succeeds in their late 50s
(although I suppose one could say that if someone in their early 20s has
already developed the skills to deal with their lucky incident successfully
may be more talented; however sometimes the fact they've had the opportunity
to develop those talents can be luck/good fortune).

The secret: stay ready and throw your hat into the ring. The worst you're
risking is embarrassment.

------
ewams
Bob Schieffer had a similar story where he was trying to get a job and went in
to CBS's headquarters looking for someone high up to talk to. When he said his
name was Bob the secretary responded that he was early but to go ahead and go
in. He did an interview (more like good ol boys talk apparently), got the gig
at CBS and ran out of there not knowing what just happened. Supposedly he
found out years later that he had walked in before a Bob Shaffer (spelling
similar, I may be wrong on it).

Source: He gave the commencement speech at RIT and told this story.

~~~
harisenbon
My father got his break in a similar way.

He had been working in steel mills for all of his teens, and after high school
went into the Marines. After getting out of the marines, he went to get a job
at GM on the assembly line.

He was well dressed and presented an air of confidence (thanks to the
Marines), and so the receptionist assumed he was there for a managerial
position instead of an assembly line position, and gave him the managerial
application form.

He got the job, learned management and then moved on to other companies as a
manager before finally starting his own company.

One chance is all you need to prove your worth.

------
hyped
This article compelled me to create an account here to comment.

I loved this quote of his: "I’ve made so many countless mistakes...being as
someone who isn’t particularly bright, I have to make them several times
before I learn." That quote coming from someone so accomplished puts things
into perspective for me.

I sometimes struggle with the capacity of my own intelligence. I am trying to
change my mentality that intelligence is something that can gradually grow
through experience/practice instead of it being an innate quality. I do
believe geniuses such as Terrence Tao, etc. are exceptions and are born with
the innate ability. For the rest of us, I believe we should emphasize hard
work and just getting things done.

I also believe that this is a source of my procrastination. Sometimes I
struggle to work on some of my side projects because of my limiting belief
that the task at hand is so huge/complex that I am just not smart enough to
complete something like that.

Does anyone else have similar thoughts or comments along these lines?

~~~
127
Personally, I only measure what I achieve divided by time used divided by
stress caused. Intelligence has not much to do with that equation. It's a red
herring, IMO. If you bind your self esteem to your perceived intelligence, it
is very fragile. If you bind your self esteem to the amount of work you do, it
is much less so.

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graham-miln
Peter Molyneux talks about how his software business began and recalls the
humous baked bean story in his Game Developer Conference (GDC) postmortem of
Populus:

<http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem>

The GDC classic postmortem talks are well worth watching.

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MrJagil
Dungeon Keeper 1 is still my all time favourite game. I just wish for Peter to
one day return to the series...

~~~
runevault
If he weren't all about over promise and under deliver these days... _looks at
the Fable series_

Sometimes I'm amazed the dev team lets him talk to the outside world anymore
:P

~~~
modokode
He is still a man with great ideas, and an amazing ability to hype them. But
yes, they get overhyped. Black & White sounded a lot more awesome than it
turned out to be when released (still a good game, though, but nowhere near as
epic as we'd all heard). Fable was, in essence, the same thing. The Movies, I
feel, isn't much of a game, but curtains for the movie making thing (which
worked nice), but by that time I had figured out the hype machine and expected
less. Lionhead makes solid games overall, but it amazes me how the gaming
magazines and sites swallow everything Molyneux says hook, line and sinker.

And now I want to play Populous II again. :/

~~~
hammmatt
I hardly think a guy that LIES about what his product is doing and has success
merely because people decided to buy the product regardless. It is almost like
he owes his success to the low self-worth of gamers that they would still play
a game that is lacking NEARLY ALL the features that were promised.

You can listen to what he has to say, but in my mind, he is a liar and uses
his costumers gullibility to his advantage. That is the only secret to his
success, and really it is not repeatable in most industries. And if it were, I
wouldn't recommend using it because it is insanely immoral, not to mention
that living on lies is just a horrible way to go through life.

~~~
runevault
I'm not sure if he'd get away with it but for the fact he had some great
successes with his name attached in the past, so people seem willing to keep
giving him a pass. Why after so long, I have no idea.

~~~
_delirium
He does still produce interesting products I think, just overhyped. For
example, _Fable 2_ actually comes somewhat close to what _Fable_ promised,
albeit a few years later, and not hitting much of what _Fable 2_ itself
promised. But it's still one of the more interesting games in that space
that's come out in the past few years.

~~~
hammmatt
I don't think you realize the severity of his lies over Fable, and Fable 2.

Back when it was Project Mayhem (can't recall exact name) he promised very
life accurate features, graphic engines that would redefine presentation, and
gameplay mechanics that still do not exist today.

He didn't say, "We are toying with the idea," or something like that. He said,
each blade of grass would sway in the wind. That you could free roam maps like
never before.

Among the features not delivered in Fable 1,2 or 3: \- When you die or age,
you can play as your child to advance the plot. \- You can workout to increase
your strength. Not working over time makes you weaker. \- You can roam freely
thorughout the world. \- You can steal anything. \- You can break anything. \-
You can use any object as weapon. This list goes on for pages that I do not
care to relive.

What did fable II feature? A dog? What the hell is that? How is this related
to the core concept? Peter is the result of giving a 5 year old a gaming
company. All the grandest coolest plans in the world and in the end having
neither the resources, discipline or skill to carry it out.

But it is okay, because people are willing to accept an inferior product, and
really just forget all the lies he tells. Just like your comments.

Isn't this supposed to be capitalism where this type of behavior gets you
punished?

I'd rather shove a stake in my eye than take his advice on how to be
successful. I could learn more about how to be successful interviewing a child
about a lemonade stand. They atleast would have interesting comments on sales
techniques, that don't rely on your audience not minding being abused.

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wmat
Although not a direct result of mistaken identity, I have a few friends who
are working on what they love because they essentially figured it out as they
went along. This leads me to believe that passion and hard work is all one
really needs to succeed. I almost added luck to the latter sentence but luck
seems to find those applying the other two.

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AndyJPartridge
Does it bug anyone else that the Acorn Atom, Commodore Amiga et al are
referred to as Consoles?

It's bad enough that the current crop of what I would call consoles have no
keyboard, and you need to break the law to write code for them unless you have
megabucks.

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georgieporgie
To hear such humility from the man responsible for so many of the games I
loved is really inspiring.

