[Space Shuttle Symphony 1993]
My “official” title is Em. Prof. Dr. Ing. George Philip Birney, D.Sc.h.c. Now anno 2025 that I live in my 75th year, my life ending being nigh, I have decided to reveal now my best kept half a century secret.
Not secret is that in 1976, at the age of 25, I passed the official Mensa test at 100%. Twice, for double verification. The statement of the Mensa psychologist Ms T. Wierda is documented as “the maximum possible score”. In other words, no standard IQ figure could be assigned. Later I became Mensa Chairman.
The secret is that ever since, I faked all my university credentials. MSc Chemical Engineering, MBA General Management, PhD Cybernetics, DSc hc Computer Science, all convincingly edited, printed and framed. I used those documents to find high level well paid jobs in several countries where I usually outperformed my colleagues by far. I simply used my IQ with the mindset “what another can do, I can do”. Those jobs included project manager, programmer analyst, business consultant, public speaker, university professor, to name a few. The place where I was working as a professor (systems design) for 10 years was the Webster University. I was rated by both the students and the dean “the best professor” during that time. So yeah, I never had any formal education in any of the aforementioned fields of knowledge. I only had my IQ, simple as that ;-)
I have lived a good life, kept no savings, overspent all my money on sportscars, and going on vacations such as wintersport skiing and hang gliding, but never obviously exaggerated nor took unnecessary risks. I never harmed anyone in any way.
On the professional side, my jobs included: mainframe computer operator, computer programmer, database administrator, systems analyst, infocenter manager, project manager, corporate software consultant, corporate systems salesman, public conference speaker, business consultant, professor of systems design. other jobs included: martial arts jujutsu instructor, dianetics auditor, astrologer, stress counsellor, paperback writer of fiction, science fiction and non-fiction, and last but not least composer of classical and modern piano music, as well as a semi-classical symphony (my only one) for full orchestra.
Following my basic minimum retirement, now it is 75 years of life, of course not wihout having experienced all sorts of the usual worldly problems, but in the end I am okay with my past.
Anyway, as far as my “credentials fakery” is concerned, well I am not a felon. I am a creator :-). That applies only to my certificates. Other than that, all that I professionally delivered was as real and good as it could be. Some people questioned sources but got shrugged off by their inability to find information (that was before the search engines era ;-).
[First Mensa credential 1976]
As for my Mensa max IQ, I have always stayed deliberately under the radar. I never needed to become a news item coined by random journalists who have no clue about the intimate meaning of high intelligence anyway. I consistently kept my gift/curse as my own personal treasure without bragging.
[Mensa Chairman credential 1983]
Now that my life is nearing the end, I find myself in the final phase: to let go everyone and everyhing, including my mistakes. I leave behind my legacy for later discovery.