Tim Denning’s assault on corporate culture

Above is one of many recent Linkedin posts by renowned blogger Tim Denning. You know, the guy whom every writer wants to be like because he’s kind of a big deal. But what is it that makes him so combative?

You don’t have to follow Tim for long to get to know a fair chunk of his back story. Those of us who’ve had our eye on Tim for a while now have come to learn of his disdain for higher education and his immense dissatisfaction with corporate culture.

Zero to?hero

If you haven’t yet read Tim’s work, he likes to tout himself as a bit of a modern-day success story, a real-life Jerry Maguire, a man who once fell from grace at the hands of a toxic corporate culture and bounced back by taking his destiny (and a pen) into his own hands.

The truth is, I kind of admire Tim, he’s a straight shooter, unwilling to compromise his values and like Jerry, he has the guts to say and write ‘the things we think and do not say’.

But boy does Tim have a chip on his shoulder and it kind of makes me gag.

We’re all just?plebs

If you were to put on a pair of Tim Denning goggles to look at the world, you’d see a world full of miserable people that need rescuing.

Everyone either spends too much time at work, not enough time with their families, has a terrible boss, works for a lousy organisation, isn’t living to their full potential, is oppressed by toxic corporate prejudice, or spent too much on a worthless education.

We’ve either done it wrong, are doing it wrong, will continue to do it wrong or all of the above. Unless we buy his course that is.

The sales?pitch

Like I said, there’s a part of me that really admires Tim Denning, he dances to the beat of his own drum, there’s no doubt about it. But I have a problem with the precursor to his sales pitch in his pursuit to sell you his course.

Statements like “The more someone says they do on their LinkedIn profile, the less they really do” and “One day you will look back and realise all those late nights in the office weren’t worth it” are designed to make you feel insecure about current career trajectory and fill you with entitlement. What’s more, they’re designed to bring you down a notch so you can sign up to a mailing list, download a free ebook and buy an online course that’ll liberate you all from your current state of misery.

So why target Linkedin?users?

Well, two reasons:

1. Because through a painstaking amount of experience Tim has come to understand that a significant number of Linkedin users actually are miserable, are sick to death of faking it until they make it, and are desperately seeking a way out of the void that is bowing down to their virtue signalling overlords.
2. Because Tim knows that the average Linkedin user has $ too. After all, you can’t sell anything to broke people, so you may as well shoot fish in a barrel.

My thoughts

Overall I think Tim inspires people. But his combative digs at corporate culture reak of saltiness. Yes, people get burned, and yes, the most significant hours of many people’s days are spent with the least significant people in their lives whilst doing work they’ll never be remembered for. But prancing around on Linkedin, denouncing corporate culture, and highlighting its toxicity in such a snide manner is not inspirational, it’s demeaning. Like a doctor who marches into a mental institute to tell everyone they’re crazy. There’s a kind of lunacy about it.

But some of Tim’s other posts and something deep down tells me that he’s better than that, and once saltiness disappears, we’re going to see a real guru at work.

****

My name is Lui Diaz; I’m a children’s author, illustrator, skateboarding teacher, and podcaster, not the kind of guy whose words you’d normally be reading. But if you’re looking for new perspectives and the odd laugh, you’re in the right place! Please subscribe here or find me on?Substack?or?Medium?for more lighthearted and evocative content :)