After attending Thursday night’s 7th Ignite DC, I have two very strong words for Peter Corbett:
THANK YOU.
Closing the evening as the final talk, Peter reminded me and the other 300-some tech and innovation enthusiasts in the room that while DC may be, in Peter’s words, “the scrappiest mother fucking town,” we get shit done…we make things happen. It was one one of those talks that left you thinking, “I’ll have what he’s having.” It was inspiring.
Did he drink a Red Bull? Or chug a can of lentil soup? Who knows. If you weren’t there, you’ll have to wait until the talk is posted to understand (although you can check out the slides now). But even then, you might not understand, because Peter’s talk really wasn’t about what he was saying or how he was saying it, but who he was saying it to…a room, and more importantly, a community of people doing great things. Inspiring things. Things that are changing the world.
What Peter didn’t mention, although I know he knows exactly what I’m talking about, is success doesn’t happen over night. The road to it, in fact, is paved with No’s. And whole lot of blood, sweat and tears.
Sometimes it’s easy to give heed to the naysayers and the status-quo’ters. Sometime it feels like those chains aren’t moving fast enough. Sometimes doubt rears its ugly head at the most pivotal points in time.
And that’s when we need a jolt of enthusiasm, a shot of energy, a 5-minute talk of evangelism to remind us, we’re not crazy. Because the things we are facing as a community and more importantly as a society and civilization are going to require some big, crazy solutions and a lot of community support and action.
Peter’s talk was a much needed reminder that if others don’t think we’re crazy for doing what we’re doing, we’re not thinking big enough. The things that need to happen in the world require each of us doing our biggest, our best, our craziest…together.
So DC: What will you do? What are you waiting for? Who will tell your story?
And Peter, THANK YOU.