It was April of 2001 and I was a young, up and coming trainer at a call center. Having no formal experience in facilitation, I would frequently choose my actions with little regard to their consequences. At the time I felt under paid and under appreciated; so I compensated with an intoxicating realization that in my classroom, I was in charge.

 

The freedom and autonomy I have granted myself inspired me to motivate my students with bribery. It started off with candy being distributed for games and correct answers; but I soon found out that candy, much like heroin, conditions it's user to build up a tolerance. So in the beginning, that bag a week habit grew quickly to $20-$40 spent on the caloric crack with every class. There had to be a better solution. This idea may have come from someone else, but being that this is my account of the facts; I came up with a great solution. I would create my own classroom currency and distribute it instead of candy. It was my thought that students would be motivated by any prize, regardless of its flavor.

 

With my own empire developing its own economy, I decided that my feeble attempts at crafting a design for the currency just would not cut it. Thankfully, I learned early on that true power does not come from being a master of everything, but mastering the people who have mastered everything. I turned to a former student and good friend, Ezra Hardman. It was through his hands, that the currency would come to life. He did an amazing job with everything aspect of the project with the exception of one, he could not capture my likeness for the face on the bill.

 

Being the power starved ruler I was, I felt compelled to seek another artist to complete the task. It was by sheer luck that another artist had stepped into my classroom. His name was Justin and although he didn't seemed interested in what was being taught, his constant drawing gave the appearance of being studious. As I remember the events, Ezra and I approached him with the project. He seemed willing to help and set to work. Now, if I was a truly effective trainer, I would have found issue with my student ignoring class work to complete this project for me. However, since I was placed in that role through a series of battlefield promotions, I was just happy it was getting done. It only took an hour or so before the image was complete, the very same image that's spattered across this site. Justin left the call center soon after that; it was something about not learning anything in training or something like that.

 

The name Evil Bryan came weeks after when a student observed that the picture seemed to give me horns and made me look evil. I can't tell you who that agent was; but with my own logo and a nickname, I was a force to be reckoned with. Through much self promotion and hard work, that Evil Bryan image played a part in going from being known to being infamous. I am still with same company and will never say my continued success was due to having that logo, but I can promise you it didn't hurt.