The big hoax

How often would you want to sign up to hang around the following: 

A bunch of washed up late 20’s to mid 30 year old sales, marketing, manager types that couldn’t climb the corporate ladder so took to something “cool enough” that if they failed (which they will) doesn’t matter much anyway to them. Oh, and they’re experts.

Lots of late thirties to late sixty year olds that think socking a few dollars once in their life into some random failed business makes them qualified to talk about investing.

And then the aloof snob with an overly smart watch to match his overly smart tee-shirt that enjoys the supremacy of god and tries to mirror it around those that lap him up as a demigod for the five seconds they get to make eye contact and to pitch their latest and greatest.

And it gets better!

Now imagine getting on the mailing list where you get awesome invites to these cool conferences and you go and you see the stale sales person next to the aloof demigod on stage sounding like experts and you’re sitting next to the bumbling professional who is laughing at the jokes that are so niche they make zero (and I mean zero) sense.

And you look around. It’s all a big hoax.

The room and the topics are all a makeshift facade of emptiness. The lines of lies get spoken from anything but experts and they get repeated and passed along by so called journos as gospel. The hurrahs and big belly laughs are embarrassing and spin out of control and everyone thinks they’re smart. Everyone.

This is the world of Startups. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in the US or Brazil, all of these environments bring together some pretty useless hipster type people who had zero stamina to make it in the real world and instead spend the next year to five filling in the space with weak conversation and essentially creating a big pile of wasted space.

Good luck walking through that mess.

Ultimately if in the end you still want to be in startup land, stay away from these crowds and the big hoax. I promise it’s depressing and not worth your energy. Focus on your customers and your business. Don’t worry about raising money and just worry about generating revenue.

Hanging out out with other entrepreneurs or so called investors or VCs isn’t going to make you a better entrepreneur. Go and hang out with your family and friends, they are the better judge as they will bring you practical advice that’s more holistic to your well being then the regurgitated flavor of the day.

And if you made it and your business is really making it, then pay it forward not by surrounding yourself with the pack of wash ups. Instead stay away from that group and  mentor sparingly; maybe to students in high school or college during career day. And remind them of the big hoax.