As I read about the scuffle between Michael Arrington and, well, the entire European Internet community, I’m reminded of another high profile Silicon Valley individual making waves at another industry conference.
In the recent case, Arrington was on the stage at LeWeb ‘08 in Paris. In response to Loic Le Meur’s statement that Silicon Valley moves too fast, and that Europeans enjoy a good two hour lunch just to experience the joy of life, Arrington recounts in his blog post:
“…the joy of life is great, but all these two hour lunches over a bottle or two of great wine and general unwillingness to do whatever it takes to compete and win is the reason why all the big public Internet companies are U.S. based.” — via Joie De Vivre: The Europeans Are Out To Lunch
Ouch. Thank you, may I have another?
Almost a year ago, Jason Calacanis stood on the stage at Affiliate Summit and essentially called Affiliate Marketers a bunch of spammers and short-sighted entrepreneurial wannabes. He scoffed at the $100,000 single paycheck earned by a kid (read revenue) and suggested that we aim higher, that in silicon valley they like to add a few zeros and get it as VC money (read debt).
Instead of screaming to have Calacanis banned from another industry event, my response was, “Holy crap, is this really how the valley perceives affiliate marketing?” We’ve got a serious image problem, one that matters when a big source of our traffic comes from companies who live in that valley.
The comments may sting, and the SV guys are remarkably without tact. But look in the mirror at yourself and the people around you, who define you to the rest of the world. Is there any truth there? And does it matter?
You may decide that you don’t need or want to be more like the Silicon Valley rat-racers as they think you should. But at the very least, understand what they’re thinking, and check to see what you can do to be better in business, and how you may deal with them better in whatever ways you need to.
Fighting back with words won’t change their attitudes. Action will.
I’ll let Sun Tzu make the point for me:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. –Sun Tzu, The Art of War
