by jmitcheson on 10/5/12, 12:41 PM with 14 comments
by olefoo on 10/5/12, 6:39 PM
As an event fundraising has a certain level of glamour in that it brings together important and powerful people; or people who would like to think they are important and powerful which is much the same thing as far as the protagonists are concerned. It's easy to fall into the scenesterism and the recurring characters (the foul-mouthed VC, the bright eyed fresh faced first time founders, the once successful entrepreneurs trying desperately to recapture the magic) and forget that underlying it all are supposed to be actual, unglamorous businesses that are solving problems for paying customers.
To some extent Silicon Valley is ripe for disruption, but that's mostly because it seems tired compared to what it once was. The positive qualities of Silicon Valley culture, the can-do optimism, the inventiveness, the piratical willingness to upset the apple-carts of the established order have been supplanted by an orderly narrative of programmed success that can pull people into creating "disruptive" companies that are just better ways to pull eyeballs to ads. For a social group that talks about innovation, it's amazing how narrow the definition of innovation can seem.
Real innovation has moved on from the valley, it's happening in marginal places where the creativity has to do with making better use of limited resources, it's going to be messing up orderly narratives of social media success and creating new products that rebuild the value chain in all industries.
by yesimahuman on 10/5/12, 4:47 PM
> The second type of Starstruck Entrepreneur is far more dangerous. This type includes engineers and designers who have a lot of talent for building technology products, but, because they've been infected by celebritization hype, limit their ambitions to being able to say, "Hi, I'm the Founder and CEO of Self-Aggrandizing Apps." So instead of applying their talents to a company that is actually poised to solve an important problem and become a transformational company, they build another vapid iPhone app that nobody wants."
First of all, I am this person. I am building my own company and it now pays me close to what I made at the last "important, transformational startup" I worked at, but this time I own my own schedule and I own my own company. And people want my products and are paying for them, so I don't know how his former point implies the latter.
We are in an era of unprecedented personal empowerment, especially with tech people. I say more power to those who want to create their own value and live an independent life, rather than devote yourself to 0.1% ownership of a rocketship that could never make it. Just because you raised a big round doesn't mean you are doing more for the world.
by JVIDEL on 10/5/12, 5:30 PM
This argument comes along a lot among people who's actual complaint is that engineers are too expensive these days, despite the number of other less complex professions that are more well remunerated and have no shortage of manpower right now.
by codex on 10/5/12, 4:48 PM
To some extent I feel that PG's essays tend to celebritize entrepreneurship. However, I think this a bit of a conflict of interest, and can come off as predatory. The reason is that he makes more money the more (or more highly qualified) entrepreneurs he can convince to take up the cause. However, the odds of failure are still quite high. In essence, these essays convince more people to buy him lottery tickets paid for with their entrepreneurial sweat. The fact that the lottery tickets have shared payouts is of little consequence to the moral argument when the odds of a single ticket winning are so slim. The only real winner is the incubator, which holds hundreds if not thousands of tickets. To minimize the hazard, I would like to see the odds of failure emphasized more.
by zan2434 on 10/5/12, 3:46 PM
by netvarun on 10/5/12, 3:04 PM
Anyways, market forces will weed out all these starstruck entrepreneurs out within 6 months and they will be back working for big co in no time. Also with the low cost of starting a company now, one can write off the failed biz as a short term MBA course.
(posted from my phone)
by zerostar07 on 10/5/12, 1:27 PM
by dmor on 10/5/12, 4:20 PM
by CrankyPants on 10/5/12, 4:54 PM
by ChrisNorstrom on 10/5/12, 9:51 PM
It's like celebrating being a good person instead of celebrating the qualities that got someone to the title of being a good person. If you celebrate the journey more people will take it. If you celebrate the outcome it doesn't help anyone, it just gives people envy.
For the longest time I didn't understand that because it went against everything my parents and society taught me. As children we are conditioned to "copy" behaviors, actions, theologies, values, and when we don't copy them from our parents correctly we are verbally punished and our behavior is looked down on. This discourages children to be "different" and associates "different, unique, new, untried" with "bad". It associates "failure" with "embarrassment" And "different, unique, new, & untried" are exactly what one needs to get ahead in life and be your own boss, build your own company, and create something new.
What I learned through all these years is that Success is the outcome of trying enough things and failing enough times to find out what doesn't work and what does. Being "afraid of failure" means to be afraid of the "Journey of trying".
Also, when you look at governments, countries, and businesses in general, failure is the default state. Things do not automatically work, they automatically fail. And you must work very hard for long periods of time and make many adjustments before you get them out of failure and into success. Even then, that success can be temporary as markets and consumer needs change quickly.
One of the things I really want to do on my blog is list all my failures, websites, product prototypes, projects. Just to encourage others to do the same.