Porn entrepreneurship .. Why everyone became obsessed with the title of "founder" ?!

Tap to listen

When Professor Thomas Chamorro Primozic began teaching his MBA more than 15 years ago, the first observation he noticed was that most of the students in front of him in the lecture hall had the primary goal of attaining this degree: to enter a prestigious job in companies. Major companies such as IBM , Unilever and other software, banking and financial institutions.

Over time, after the great rise of Google, Facebook and Amazon in the global arena, the professor himself noticed that his students' goals were changing. Rather than the goal for most of them was to get prestigious jobs in large companies, most of his students told him that their primary goal was to start a creative startup. And they see themselves as entrepreneurs, not traditional employees.

In 2017, Professor Chamorro released Talent Delusion , in which he mentioned the crisis of illusion that many people have in terms of their talents and abilities, including the massive rush of everyone to the field of entrepreneurship in particular, and the trauma to which the majority is exposed. Achieving a terrible failure.

"The majority are now telling you: I'm a" startup boy, "and I'm going to launch something new, and I'll be the next big thing. I have an idea, and I don't like the idea of ​​having a manager, I'll be the new Elon Musk. But we have a responsibility to tell these people that the possibility of realizing these dreams is already very low, and that in order to reach them they will sacrifice many things, and it does not seem that easy. ” (1, 2)

Porn Entrepreneurship!

The basic concept that pornography revolves around is not just sex, but sex fantasy. The porn industry is based on falsification of reality by providing fantasy images that caress the imagination and raise the levels of excitement for the recipient, based on an internal impulse eager to search for sexual substance, the result will be a temporary saturation of the excitement and mixing with high levels of fantasy and fantasy and counterfeiting on the screen, the viewer becomes addicted to follow, and waste Its manufacturing machines are non-stop with tremendous billions of dollars in revenue.

In the world of entrepreneurship - especially in recent years - a term with the principles of relying on fantasy rather than truth - the term "Entrepreneurship porn" - has emerged. Massive and ongoing promotion of the idea that you will be the next Steve Jobs, thousands of motivational videos that motivate you to quit your job and start your own business, enormous polish for the modern entrepreneur's life filled with meeting tables, big finance news, mega buildings, entrepreneurial trips around the world, and other influences that ignite the recipient's desire to Storm this world without previous planning.

This situation, despite its advantages in giving a significant stimulus to those affected by it can not be ignored, at the same time it plays a role identical to the concept of the porn industry, which is to provide a false fantasy image of the reality of the world of entrepreneurship, and focus on certain models market the meanings of brilliance and creativity Richness and comfort, ignoring or passing through dark sides, could lead to the destruction of millions of entrants into this world. (1, 3, 4)

The glamor of the title "founder" that blinds the eyes

In her article " The Dangerous Rise of Entrepreneurship porn " published in the Harvard Business Review in 2014, entrepreneur Maura Arons Milli explored her vision of the term based on her personal experience of shifting from her regular job to an entrepreneur. . Miley described the feverish state of entrepreneurship marketing and promotion as “a chaotic reality in which everyone seeks to launch and run a private business to achieve personal dreams of life and work.

Mora Millie says the pursuit of the name "entrepreneur" is a very American thing stemming from the spin of the American dream of virtual emancipation from the job, and full immersion in glamorous appearances that suggest that a founder of a faltering startup might be better off than an employee. In an already successful company. This impulse is most often motivated by the desire to end the usual formal work or the so-called 9 am to 5 pm job, and to indulge in a way of life that seems full freedom in a situation where the manager is absent in his traditional sense and replaced by the impulse and desire to build something new under Supervision of "self-management" and not managing others.

In fact, after launching two entrepreneurial companies, Mora suggests, based on her experience, that entrepreneurship is far from the glamorous concept of “freedom” that everyone thinks, and that launching a startup does not mean liberation from the job mill, but in most cases it means the flow stops. The critique you normally get, and getting into a wide spiral of physical and social pressures is sure that everyone is unable to pass it easily, especially with different circumstances and life requirements between one person and another, and the ability of each person to endure, as well as the level of expertise and speed of the establishment of the project and strength. (5)

The reality that they do not tell you!

Entrepreneurship Porn sells the idea that adventure in itself is fun, venture to leave the boring regular job, start a new company and start breaking into a crazy world full of money, and the concept of "failure" is promoted as part of the fun journey. This brilliant image motivates those affected to break into this world, imagining that entrepreneurs are originally a group of adventurers, and that adventure is part of the fun that awaits huge money.

In a stunning study conducted by the prestigious Stanford University in collaboration with Princeton University, it was conducted on 60 thousand people in 2012, to measure the level of "risk Tolerance ". This large segment is divided into two groups, the first group includes people who started to start their startups, as opposed to the second group, which includes the general population in all categories of doctors, engineers, workers and others. In other words, measure the level of “risk” among entrepreneurs against ordinary people.

Here, three options have been presented to the two groups - entrepreneurs and ordinary - in terms of "venture investments" (i.e., investing in opportunities, projects or companies with a probability of success:

Option 1: Earn $ 5 million, with a probability of success of only 20% (ie 80% probability of loss).

Option 2: Earn $ 2 million, with a 50% probability of success (i.e. the probability of success equals the probability of failure)

Option 3: Earn $ 1.2 million, with an 80% probability of success (ie a 20% loss probability).

Bill Gates, who is said to have left the university to set up his own business, actually did not make this decision until a year after he completed his software development.

Reuters

The general and self-evident perception that will surely come to mind is that the entrepreneurial group - with all the talk about entrepreneurship as an entrepreneurial world - will tend to go to the first option, earning $ 5 million for a high probability of loss, the highest possible profit model even if The probability of his failure is very high. Ordinary people will tend to go to the third safe option, a $ 1.2 million gain - less profit - in return for high probability of success, minimal loss and extremely safe conditions.

Surprisingly, the results of the study proved quite the opposite; most entrepreneurs tended to the third safe option - less profit but guaranteed - while ordinary people tended to the first adventurous option, a very high profit but a high rate of loss. The study showed that the fantasy of adventure that is always attributed to entrepreneurs that they are always adventurous and aspire to distinctive opportunities even under high probability of losing are false perceptions, and that entrepreneurs tend to guaranteed profits, while ordinary people, and under the influence of the glamor of entrepreneurship porn assume that the right is Going to the highest possible adventure, even if its success rate is small, under the influence of the chaotic rush of "adventure" in the world of entrepreneurship. (5, 6)

Follow your passion .. and resign from your job

In 2016, Adam Grant, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, published a book entitled ' Originals' , highlighting the most prominent 'myths' promoted as fundamentals for success, especially in business. One of the most important myths that Grant writes in his book is the myth of sacrificing a stable status quo in order to build a better future without guaranteed results, or what in the world of entrepreneurship means the concept of "resigning" from the current job in order to chase passion and build a great startup.

Grant says that marketing this case in marketing porn entrepreneurship by quitting the job and starting a startup is a completely counterfeit and disoriented and completely contradicts many of the models promoted as suicide entrepreneurs. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is said to have left the university to set up his own business, did not make the decision until a year after he finished developing his software and received clear offers from investors about starting to fund his company.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple giant, continued his regular job for a year at Hewlett-Packard ( HP ) after the invention of the Apple 1 computer, which was considered the kickoff for Apple, and then decided - a full year after its continuation In his job - to devote himself to working with his friend Steve Jobs after successive financing offers and make sure that the company has a promising future.

Even the founders of Google, Larry Beg and Sergey Brin, discovered ways to improve search performance significantly, they lasted for two years at Stanford University, before deciding to quit their job at the university and launch Google. Dozens of examples that are world-renowned iconic icons, presented all the time as adventurers who rebelled against their stereotypical lives and started their businesses adventurously, were in fact very cautious before making this decision.

It is not based on individual entrepreneurs' attitudes, but has also been researched by management researchers at the University of Wisconsin. The study was conducted on 5,000 American people who turned to entrepreneurship and startups for 12 years. The study revealed that entrepreneurs who started their startups while retaining their traditional jobs were 33 percent less likely to fail than those who ventured to quit their jobs to start their startups. (7, 8)

Change the world .. and start early

Once you point to the world of entrepreneurship, Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg always jumps into the forefront, and always the recurring story that he started launching his 19-year-old business. It's no different about Microsoft's founder Bill Gates and Apple's founder Steve Jobs, who started his business at 21. Always play on the chord Start your entrepreneurial project early and be exceptional in your teens, to get billions when you are young.

Starting a startup is not an easy task, just a social glamor, Instagram photos, or media appearance.

communication Web-sites

This trend - starting your entrepreneurial project early - carries a complete confusion of the truth. Over the years, many entrepreneurial organizations have been conducting studies to try to reach a better life expectancy to start a startup. TechCrunch has identified 31 as the best age to launch a startup based on the founding age analysis of award-winning startups. TechCrunch is a pioneer for ten full years. Entrepreneur magazine Inc has set the average age of 29 for the founders who launch fast-growing companies.

However, the most recent and more specialized study released by MIT in the summer of 2018 found that the best life expectancy for startups with a higher success rate is 45 years, that is, the best age to become an entrepreneur and start a startup with a lower failure rate is middle age, not its beginnings. , As a stage of maturity and accumulated experiences that avoid the entrepreneur to fall into the trap of failure or dreams of pink. (9, 10)

In the end, starting a startup is not an easy task, just a social glamor, photos on Instagram or a media appearance, but a real risk not only of money and effort, but also of taking a thorny path whose results are not guaranteed in all its aspects. The only thing that guarantees survival in this world is that an entrepreneur breaks into it on the basis of a real perception of it and not an attraction behind a false image that has nothing to do with the truth.