Recruiting Myachi Masters

by Crazy Ivan


You know you have a pretty fun job when people show up and do it voluntarily.

That actually happens quite a bit in Myachi.  We'll just be jamming out at one of the stores and some Myachi Maniac will show up ready to spread the word.  These maniacs come in all sizes... some are fourth graders who go to an after school Myachi club.  Some are high-schoolers that have been playing for a while.  Some are friends of ours in their twenties and thirties that just enjoy throwing down and getting people fired up about the game.

With that in mind, you'd think that finding new Myachi Masters would be relatively easy... and in a sense, it is.  We've hired quite a few people over the years and while some of them have moved on to other things, we've never seemed to have a problem getting as many qualified Myachi Masters as we need at any given time.  In fact, it seems like whenever we start having the "we really need to hire more people" conversation, a few prospective Myachi Masters appear out of nowhere.

If you've been to our spot at FAO over the last couple of weeks, you might have gotten a chance to meet one such prospect.  Her Myachi name is Chill and she's been training with us for a little over two weeks now.  She's already proven herself to be a competent teacher and that's 90% of doing the job well.  She has a ways to go to achieve the skill-level one expects of a Myachi Master, but she's well on her way and has a huge athletic background to draw upon as she moves forward.

Next week, we'll be auditioning another prospective Master.  He's skilled, sharp and supremely confident; all important qualifications for being a Myachi Master, but there's really no way to know how good somebody will be at this job until you see them doing it.  We've brought on plenty of extremely skilled people who had all the outward qualifications for the job only to see them fail miserably when it came time to turn it on and be a Myachi Master.

There are some pretty common pitfalls that many would-be Masters find themselves in.  The most common is probably what we call "internal jamming"... since most of the people we hire come from some kind of entertainer or skill-based profession, they're usually used to being the center of attention.  But in Myachi, the person you're teaching has to be the center of attention.  Sure, the crowd around you will go nuts when they see you doing a Matrix reloaded, but that'll never be as impressive as seeing a 7 year old stick a 360 for the first time.  It will never be as exciting as watching three people who thought they couldn't do it all sticking an Under the Leg.

But for an entertainer, it can be weird to remove yourself from the stage.  I know it was hard for me when I moved from juggling to Myachi.  It was no longer about what I could do, but rather it was about what everyone else can do.  I had to transition from the entertainer to the cheerleader, from center stage to center row.  It was a weird transition, but it was a fun one.  Because ultimately, watching that 7 year old hit their first 360 is way more fun for me as well as the audience.

There are other pitfalls as well.  Some people who come from a sales background can't seem to get comfortable with the "soft-sell" method we use in Myachi.  Myachi Man will tell you that in 13 years of doing this, he's never once said "You should buy one".  That's just not how we operate.  We're not selling used cars, we're selling skills.  Our strategy has always been to play with as many people as possible and have as much fun as possible.  We sell a toy and having fun is the best way to do it.

But some people who spent a lot of time as salesmen can't get the hang of that.  If somebody isn't interested in buying a Myachi after they play, I never try to talk them into it.  I just say, "Cool.  If you want to learn a few more tricks, I'll be here all day."  I invite them back to play some more, but I never say, "Are you sure?  You're really good at this game."

There are other common pitfalls, of course.  Like any other job, we occasionally get prospective employees who aren't punctual, aren't on task, aren't trustworthy, aren't dedicated... the kind of thing that all employers have to deal with from time to time.  But we pride ourselves on having pretty good eyes for Myachi Masters.  And that's evidenced by the fact that the average period of employment with Myachi (so far) is 2.4 years.  That means that enough people stick around long term (and work out well) that the few who fail after a few weeks barely even register on our averages.

And this, of course, all leads to the big question.  Where do we find Myachi Masters?

I'd love to say we have a method, but blind-luck isn't exactly a strategy.  For whatever reason, solid potential Myachi Masters always seem to show up about the time that we need them.  Mav and Kid met Chill at a trade show in Maryland and it turned out she lived close to the city and wanted a job.  The not-yet-named trainee we have starting next week just happened by our stand at FAO and fell in love with the game when Noodles taught him.

But even going further back, you'll see that all the Myachi Masters showed up in ways like that.  We've never put out a "Help Wanted" ad because we've never had to.  We met Maverick at a trade show in Vegas.  Bones was a maniac we wanted to hire even before he was old enough for us to do so.  We met Lucky when we were in Vegas demonstrating at the FAO that used to be there.  Monk learned the game from a friend and then sought us out to offer up his services.  Bones brought us Bamboo pretty much fully trained and ready to go.  Noodles' sister got him into the game and insisted that he come in and start working for us.  Heck, even Kid and I started off as Myachi addicts and only became employees of the company later.

In many ways, we never recruit Myachi Masters, but in many ways, we're always recruiting Myachi Masters. And if you're currently a Myachi Maniac and hope to one day join the ranks of the masters, take comfort in the fact that all of us started off as Maniacs.  The love of the game has to come first.  If you have that, you can overcome anything else.