Why Being a Good BS Talker is Important For Your Career.

The power of the blag

Talking BS/Bollocks/Absolute Shite is a great life skill that can take you a long way. It is a skill mastered by successful salespeople, those that gain promotions, and often a key component in securing a job in the first place.

I remember when I didn't have any real tangible work experience so I had to talk to some good old-fashioned bs to secure my first job. Although I was caught out a few times on this journey, I found that in order to get actual experience, I had to big up the limited experience I had.

I basically transformed my part-time job washing pots in a restaurant into an award-nominated, world-class, highly respected leader in the field of restaurant hygiene and safety management.

I was impressing myself with some of the spiel I was coming out with. I didn't even know where it was coming from. I was dressing up a job that I gave no real effort towards and hated every second of.

This was some top-quality blagging on my end.

Blagging is defined by Oxford Dictionary as:

Managing to obtain (something) by using persuasion or guile.

Once I entered the corporate world, however, I soon realize that my bs talking and blagging ability was nothing special. In fact, it was pretty tame.

I had entered the big leagues of dressing up achievements and abilities, despite doing very little.

I have worked with some of the best blaggers in the business. I am in awe of some of the rubbish these people can come out with, with no hint of irony. Keeping a straight face, while they blindly lie about their contributions.

What these average joes lack in ability, they make up in talking utter nonsense. They are able to talk themselves into promotions or a bigger share of the bonus pot.

I remember this one guy I worked with who was a few years older than me. Every team meeting he almost hijacked it and made it about all the brilliant work he had been doing. It was incredible.

He came prepared and armed with the most amount of rubbish you could ever hear. And there was no surprise that he was often the one that got praised and actually won wider company awards.

I would come out of a meeting with him and be in absolute astonishment with the shite he had just spoken.

I would just sit back and watch as he described a huge predicament that he had solved. He made it all about himself and basically illustrated in agonizing detail how he had saved the business so much money by being a complete genius.

You would be watching on thinking, I was in that meeting he is describing and none of that happened! They have made that shit up, from start to finish.

When they say you can’t polish a turd, you clearly haven’t seen this guy get to work.