Here’s a tip for those of you thinking about your brand. Take a lesson from Travis Kalanick and Donald Trump: Don’t make absurd “biggest” and “best” claims about what you’ve done. They don’t buy you any good will and are easy to debunk.
In a 2014 Financial Times interview, Kalanick also claimed to be “number seven in the country in Angry Birds.” In all these profiles, the boast is supposed to reflect a wider drive to win at pursuits others treat less seriously. “If somebody gives me a casual game and says, ‘OK, here’s the world record,’ I’ll just go until I’m there,” Kalanick told the Financial Times. For more details on the “Wii Tennis” story, we need to rely on Chris Sacca…
“I have a confession to make, Mr. Sacca. I’ve played a fair amount of Wii Tennis before,” [Kalanick said]. While talking, he used his controller to navigate through the settings pages on the Wii to a list of high scores. “In fact,” he continued, “on the Wii Tennis global leaderboard, I am currently tied for second in the world.”
Reading this detailed explanation only set off more alarm bells in my head. Wii Sports doesn’t have any “global leaderboard,” as Sacca claims. There is no “settings pages” on the system or the game to let you compare your performance to anyone else online. I literally wrote an entire reference book about the Wii, in which Wii Sports filled an entire chapter, so I’m pretty confident on this point.
Source: Was Uber’s CEO really the second-best Wii Sports tennis player? | Ars Technica