What Kyle & Carson and Penn & Teller Have in Common

byboomergp08

31.1K followers

6 years ago

Last week I wrote a WA blog about my dinner with David, a senior Google programmer and an ex coworker of mine.. Many of you liked the story. Seeing how I could write a book on all of the experiences I had while working for a big video game design company, I am going to tell another one today and how it reminds me of Kyle and Carson.

IT TAKES TWO...

There are many successful business partners one could look up. We have Larry Page and Sergey Brin, cofounders of Google. Penn Jillette and Raymond Teller, cofounders of Penn & Teller comedic magician entertainers. And then we have Kyle Loudoun and Carson Lim, cofounders of this great online education and business building platform known as Wealthy Affiliate.

In this post I am going to talk about my personal experiences with Penn & Teller and Kyle & Carson. There is a subtle similarity between the two duos beyond their abilities to create success through teamwork. Penn & Teller create magic, and if you have ever built a website using programming, you could look at how websites are now made at WA as magic too.

But let me begin with my experience first seeing Penn & Teller and then actually spending hours talking with them. It started out great and eventually turned into a desire to want to punch them in the balls. Yes, I wanted to do bodily harm to them, though almost everyone else in Absolute Entertainment thought I was over reacting.

JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE PLAYING VIDEO GAMES DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN DESIGN A VODEO GAME

In my 25+ years in the video game design industry I have met several people who have said that they could design a video game if given the chance because they are an avid game player. Hey, I like playing Call of Duty and I am good at it, but it doesn't mean I could join Military Special Ops and skillfully kill terrorists.

Well right around the time that Absolute Entertainment was getting ready to close down and become a different kind of video gaming company, Penn & Teller approached the owners and asked if we could make a video game for them that would be released on the Sega CD console. Do any of you gamers out there remember that console?

Penn & Teller came into our company HQ in Upper Saddle River, NJ and began hashing out their idea for the game. None of the owners said anything about the concept being stupid, which it was in my opinion, probably because of the money P&T were throwing our way. Or maybe it was the fact that this was going to be Absolute's last game.

A JOB WHERE YOU CAN MEET SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE

Though developing video games can be a fun endeavor it can also be stressful, but the perks always outweighed the negatives. No set time to be in work, as long as it was before 10 o'clock in the morning. No set time to leave work, as long as you got your daily tasks done. No strict dress code. T-shirts, jeans, shorts, sneakers and flip flops were common.

We had free candy, cookies, snacks, juice, soda, coffee, and tea in the lunchroom. We got free dinners delivered to the office for anyone working between 6 and 9 PM. Free membership to a local gym, company softball games and barbecues, and occasional all-expense paid 5-day/night trips to Chicago and Las Vegas. Then there was the times we got to meet famous people.

The video game industry always crosses paths with entertainers and sports personalities. This happens because many games are created with them as the focus of the game. For example, we developed a game for the Nintendo called Jordan vs. Bird. Though I did not get to meet them the game focused on basketball players Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

But in addition to meeting Penn & Teller I also had the pleasure of meeting baseball player Pete Rose (before the whole sports betting fiasco), Olympic ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi, singers Melissa Etheridge and Debbie (Blondie) Harry, rock and roll artist Lou Reed, race car driver Danica Patrick, and actor Malcom Jamal Warner (Center in above picture).

WHY I WANTED TO PUNCH PENN & TELLER

Like I said earlier, when P&T came into our offices to pitch their game ideas to us, me and several others would look at each other from across the conference room and roll our eyes at some of the absurd ideas these guys thought would be cool to play. But just like their stage magic it was more of a goof than something really fun.

There was this one part of the game called Desert Bus and all you needed to do was drive a bus through the desert from Tucson, AZ to Las Vegas, NV. It was this part of the game that really made my blood boil and also pissed off the testers that worked for me. Why? Because the drive was on a straight road with no other traffic or scenery, see above image.

But here's the part I really hate. The bus top speed is 45 mph, it constantly veers to the left, so you cannot let go of the video game controller, it will take you about 8 hours to make the trip, the game cannot be paused nor can you stop the bus, if the bus goes off the road or stops the engine will stall and you will get towed back to the beginning, also in real time.

When it came time to test this piece of crap game I had to schedule testers to test for 2 hours and then have another tester quickly take control of the bus before it either stopped or went off the road. It was an "Absolute" nightmare! Most everyone in the company gave their condolences for what we were going through but P&T laughed at us. Can you understand why I wanted to punch them? I still do. LOL

WHAT DOES KYLE & CARSON HAVE IN COMMON WITH PENN & TELLER?

Both pairs of partners have created a popular brand through the efforts of teamwork. Each person has their own unique role to play in the success of their brand. With P&T Penn is the one that does all of the talking and Teller doesn't speak a word. The same is true with K&C. Kyle does most of the video/audio training tutorials and Carson doesn't speak.

Have you ever wondered what Carson's voice sounds like? We all have heard Kyle's voice. I know it was really weird for me to sit in a conference room with Penn & Teller and hear Teller actually talking. It was like discovering the missing link. But this just shows you that you do not need to be heard in order to be heard. Yes that is an oxymoron but still true.

Carson plays a vital role in keeping WA running smoothly and when the platform changes or a new upgrade is added Carson is the one who lets us know through his blogs. Why not a video tutorial? Not everyone feels comfortable doing videos. Just look through my 69 (soon to be 70) training tutorials, not one of them is a video. I'm more comfortable doing tutorials.

ALL of My Training Tutorials

It is not necessary for any of us to be "heard" in order to achieve success and this holds true for partnerships too. Teamwork with your business partner and with others in the WA community as a single up and coming entrepreneur will yield results. If you want to know what Carson sounds like, get 300 premium referrals within a year, go to Las Vegas, and you will know.