Kosher Ego and Kindergarten Entrepreneurs

Kindergarten entrepreneurs

In a previous post I was talking of  The new elite: kindergarten entrepreneurs who are often a product of the famous Silicon Valley incubators:

Some incubators created one the most conceited and arrogant breed of young entrepreneurs.  They are taught that a successful startup company is the elixir of happiness and they are bred "scientifically"  to be forever fearless winners, and immune  to the vicissitudes and perils in real life roller-coasters. It sounds like Nietzsche Übermensch as a goal for humanity to perfect itself

Team of Teams

In a book that is currently #1 bestseller in Business and Organizational Learning, General Stanley McChrystal at al write:

Al Qaeda was not a collection of supermen forged into a devilishly ingenious organization by brilliant masterminds...   Much like a Silicon Valley garage start-up that rides an idea or product that is well timed rather than uniquely brilliant to an absurd level of wealth, AQI happened to step onto an elevator that was headed up.

Silicon Valley is less and less about technological leadership - the technology mostly comes from somewhere else - and more and more about a strategy and organizational brilliance similar to Al Qaeda.

Don’t label them as smart

In a June 15, 2015 article from The Atlantic, James Hamlin quotes Stanford mathematics professor Jo Boaler

People are born with some innate cognitive differences, but those differences are eclipsed by early achievement, Boaler argues. When people perform well (academically or otherwise) at early ages and are labeled smart or gifted, they become less likely to challenge themselves. They become less likely to make mistakes, because they stay in their comfortable comfort zone and stop growing. And their fixed mindset persists through adulthood. The simple and innocent praising of a smart kid feeds an insidious problem that some researchers track all the way up to gender inequality in STEM careers.

Here is a paradox discovery. The incubators of Silicon Valley breed kindergarten entrepreneurs  to become  long term professional failures, no matter how gifted they were

The Kosher Ego

A very fine line separates an ego from evil to greatness:

Do good with all your ego.

Say, “I need to make this happen.”

Say, “I have to see this done.”

Not only is this “I” permissible, it is crucial to your mission in life. 

So when does ego become evil?

When it believes it is your mission in life.

This is called the Kosher Ego Here is an example:

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Disclosure

I don’t say anything online that I wouldn’t say in person. What I say are exclusively my thoughts, views, opinions or understanding of a topic or issue, and not my employer's. I can be wrong even though I try hard not to be. I will admit to mistakes, correct them promptly and even apologize where it is appropriate.