Click for full photo gallery: 30 Under 30: Technology
In the field of social psychology, there�s a concept known as the �fundamental attribution error.� Believe it or not, it has a lot to do with Silicon Valley and tech companies.
Basically, it says that all humans (including you and me) are born biased to over-value the importance of personal characteristics in driving others� outcomes, but under-value the situational factors in driving others� outcomes.
Yet, when we explain our own achievements in life, we are biased to over-value our personal characteristics as explaining our successes while also over-valuing our situation factors in explaining our failures.
From Wikipedia:
As a simple example, if Alice saw Bob trip over a rock and fall, Alice might consider Bob to be clumsy or careless (dispositional). If Alice tripped over the same rock herself, she would be more likely to blame the placement of the rock (situational).
In Silicon Valley, this type of thinking is so prevalent, you could say the �fundamental attribution error� has become �groupthink.� Everyone believes that the sun rises and sets on their pillow case.
Entrepreneurs believe that they can recreate their successes again and again, start-up after start-up.
In some ways, the Valley is set up to support this way of thinking. If you�re successful at one company and you were the entrepreneur, you deserve all the money from all the venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road to go start your next venture. After all, who are the VCs going to support? Some failed entrepreneurs instead?
The Valley culture also supports the idea of �serial entrepreneurs� � those who do it again and again. It�s just a matter of time, if you keep at it, before you�ll strike oil. And, when you�re surrounded by so many other successful entrepreneurs in the Valley, success seems so close you can touch it.
But there�s another side to all the start-ups: lots of failures. A few years ago, I was in the Valley meeting with a CEO of a photo-sharing start-up. I thought it was quite good. He was almost 40. He had spent his entire career in the Valley. He gave me a tour of the offices, we talked about all the prestigious VCs he�d signed up, and then we went back to his office and closed the door. About 45 minutes into the discussion, he shared something with me:
�This is my 5th start-up. I hope it works but�. My wife says, �this is it.� We�re done after this one. I�ll have to go work for some big tech company if this doesn�t work out. We�ve chased this dream for a long time. It�s been real tough to be so close.�
They didn�t make it. The company�s gone. I haven�t kept up with him but I assume his wife ensured he followed her advice. Start-ups are tough � no matter how romanticized the VCs and media make it out to be. The VCs and media don�t care who wins and loses because they�ll still have jobs watching from the sidelines. The CEO I met who lived and breathed it for 15 years of failure � he cared.
Just last week, Facebook announced that its CTO, Bret Taylor, was leaving the social network to start his own company. Taylor said:
I had always been upfront with Mark that I eventually wanted to do another start-up� And we felt now is the best time after the IPO and the launch of some recent things for me to do that�. Cross-pollination among companies is what drives so much of innovation, so I would not project a lot onto this event.
When I heard of this departure, I thought of a throwaway comment I heard Mark Zuckerberg made to Michael Wolf in 2005, President of MTV at the time, on why he wouldn�t sell Facebook to Viacom:
�You just saw my apartment,� Zuckerberg replied. �I don�t really need any money. And anyway, I don�t think I�m ever going to have an idea this good again.�
That�s a very astute, honest, and unexpected comment � especially from a 21 year old. What 21 year old, or 30 year old, or 40 year old, doesn�t still think his or her best and brightest ideas are still ahead of them?
Yet, the tech history records suggest that Zuckerberg�s prediction might be right. He might never have another (or at least equal) good idea to Facebook before he dies. That�s it. He�s tapped out. He�s done. He might as well make Facebook as awesome as he can, because he knows he�ll never get an opportunity like this ever again.
Gallery: 30 Tech Wunderkinds Under 30
No comments:
Post a Comment