Hollywood has always had a way of glamorizing and rewriting any reality into a two hour entertaining story that captivates us all. We’ve seen it with biographies and historical portrayals of sports figures, political leaders, musicians and more. There’s no reason it should be any different for technology leaders. While watching The Social Network, I couldn’t help but draw some similarities between the Mark Zuckerberg character and that of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs from the late 90’s film, Pirates of Silicon Valley. Is Hollywood telling us entertaining stories or providing the characteristics of what it takes to be successful?
Four Characteristics of Our Tech Leaders (according to Hollywood):
Be young – One must be a massive success by late teens or early 20’s. I mean let’s face it, if you can’t be a billionaire before you can legally order your first beer, you might as well hang it up. I’d even suggest dropping out of college to focus on your first billion. That formal education will really just slow you down.
Have a superiority complex – It also helps to be better than everyone else. Our technology heroes, as portrayed in the movies, each had a chip on their shoulder. Mark clearly outclassed his girlfriend and partner and college classmates, Steve worked people to the edge of sanity and then called them worthless, and Bill was always one move ahead of Steve.
Steal Ideas – This is key. There is no way to be successful at the billionaire level without stealing the whole foundation of your business from someone else. It all starts with a good idea… someone else’s good idea. Mark got his idea from two former college classmates, Steve got his idea from Zerox, and Bill… well Bill took the idea from Steve. All is fair in love and technology.
Be Deceptive – Stealing the idea alone is not enough. After tricking your trusted friends or business partners into giving you their great ideas, you must then avoid contact with them as much as possible. It helps to lie, tell them you’re busy, or down play exactly what you are doing with the idea. This one comes naturally, it seems.
I have to admit, I love a good movie. With all that goes into writing a good script, convincing actors, award winning production and direction, it’s easy to see it as real. As the credits roll, remember that it’s a movie. Movies may be based in facts, but they are seldom the reality.
6 comments
Very funny I am going downstairs now to tell my dad I’m not going to college and I am going to make my first billion soon on my minisites. Just waiting for the $1,000,000,000 click from the big G
You have built a perfect case.
Nice! Never trust anything from Hollywood of course, but this is pretty funny – I’m a techie so I may be a little biased.
@Teen – let us know how that goes… when you get your computer and phone back next week… jk.
🙂
@Clay, you have to wonder how far off from the truth it really is 🙂
You forgot look and dress real nerdy except for Steve Jobs he’s a cool nerd!
@Michael, I should have included some pictures of the 80’s clothing and a sweatshirt for Zuck.