Among the people that video-sharing websites have raised to cult status, perhaps no one is regretting his celebrity more than Yale senior Aleksey Vayner.
"Many people believe successful people are lucky," Vayner says in a video he submitted along with job applications to several banks. "I completely disagree with this notion. Successful people think in very specific patterns, which then create opportunities for them that they can seize."
Unfortunately, Vayner's strategy for success has backfired. His video, circulated throughout the Internet, is the butt of countless jokes and is now the subject of allegations of fraud and plagiarism.
The six-minute video, titled "Impossible is Nothing," features Vayner discussing his strategies for leadership and success, and includes such catchphrases as "Success is a mental transformation" and "Ignore the losers."
He also puts his words into action by appearing to perform various athletic feats such as bench-pressing 495 pounds, ballroom dancing and breaking a stack of bricks with his bare hands.
The video was posted on YouTube, a popular video-sharing website, where it quickly became one of the site's most viewed clips, leading news sources such as The New Yorker and "The Today Show" to pick up the story.
While Vayner has successfully petitioned YouTube to remove his video from the site — he cited copyright violations — the clip is still available at IvyGate, a new blog that covers the Ivy League.
"We're confident that we have a valid fair use claim," the blog states, in response to the cease-and-desist letter Vayner sent IvyGate demanding that the site discontinue showing his video. He has also threatened to sue IvyGate. The blog's anonymous authors have since contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student journalists that provides free legal advice.
"We're not scared," IvyGate's creators wrote.
While Vayner is considering taking legal action, he may be facing charges himself. On his resume, also posted on IvyGate, Vayner claims to have launched the nonprofit organization Youth Empowerment Strategies and boasts that it has earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, an evaluator of American charities.
But Charity Navigator president Trent Stamp writes in his blog, Trent Stamp's Take, that "the charity is a fake."
"The 'Charity Navigator 4-Star Charity' icon is no joke," Stamp writes, noting the prestige of the recognition. "This kid decided that giving himself one was a good way to get a job in the investment banking world."
"If Yale decides not to kick this kid out, I'll be sitting by my telephone, waiting for an answer as to why this isn't a whole lot worse than plagiarism, which I know would get him expelled," Stamp added.
In fact, Vayner has been accused of plagiarism as well. Vayner lists on his resume his self-published book, "Women's Silent Tears," which presents a female perspective of the Holocaust.
But according to IvyGate, at least one of the sections of the book appears to have been directly copied from the online Holocaust Encyclopedia and Lulu.com, the website that published Vayner's book, has since discontinued its sales.
Vayner is not the first person to become an Internet punch line. In May 2001, Princeton graduate Peter Chung '99, then working for the Carlyle Group in South Korea, sent an explicit email to several friends detailing his lavish lifestyle and sexual exploits. "CHUNG is going to f—k every hot chick in Korea over the next 2 years (5 down, 1,000,000,000 left to go)," he wrote. Chung resigned once the email went global.
Students who heard of the Vayner incident expressed both disbelief and outrage. Comments on various blogs covering the story ranged from "You can't make this s—t up" to "This is a joke, right?"
Anita Gupta '08, who plans to apply to investment banks next year, thought Vayner's application was clearly unethical. "I would hope that the firms do something to make sure that students like him do not receive an unfair advantage," she said.
Beverly Hamilton-Chandler, director of the University's career services, said that students are advised to be "completely accurate as they prepare their application credentials."
She added that when applying for jobs, students should only submit what has been requested — usually a resume, cover letter and possibly a writing sample. No videos.
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— The Resume Mocked 'Round the World: Vayner Speaks (The New York Times, Oct. 20)Read More
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