Venture Adventure

Over the years, I’ve worked in companies founded and run by various ethnic groups, each company having its own culture, sometimes transcending their inherent ethnicity, sometimes not. For instance, one company was founded and run by a group of Pakistanis, and had funding from VCs with Pakistani backgrounds. One of the employees, an Indian, was describing her long trip home to India. Being a naturally curious person, I asked her where her home was in relationship to Pakistan. She put her fingers to her lips, and drew a map of India. Pointing to the northwest corner, she said “That’s what they call Pakistan. We call it Kashmir.” This is just one of many examples of where simple conversation can lead you quickly into very dangerous territory.

As a result, it’s been my longstanding practice to avoid mixing politics, religion, and business. This applies especially in the Bay Area, where so much of what we do is in multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. One startup I was with had Israelis, Egyptians, Syrians, Bangladeshis, Americans, French, Indians, Pakistanis, Taiwanese and Chinese all working closely together.

Tom Peters has the same policy. However, while traveling in Italy recently, he was made aware of a poll that showed that 91% of Egyptians (Egypt being his next destination) favored attacking American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tom expressed surprise at this result, and asked his readership if he should visit Egypt?

My naivety shows here, because I would have assumed that someone as well traveled and experienced as Tom is would be aware by now that American’s are not the world’s most loved people, particularly in the Arab world.

I was also somewhat disappointed to see that Tom’s initial reaction is to implicitly lay blame on the American government and, secondarily, the American people:

In short, in response to very legitimate issues, we have nonetheless exacerbated the most Godawful mess imaginable in the Middle East. And in the process screwed up almost beyond recognition, hopefully not beyond repair, America’s reputation in the world as a beacon of hope and decency. (To want to shoot American soldiers is, at least metaphorically, to want to shoot at me. I am an American, and regardless of how I cast my vote, I am responsible for my government—that’s the way it is in Democracies. Why do they want to shoot me? Because they’re hopeless? Because I’m hopeless? Both?)

The problem is much more complicated than that (which Tom somewhat belatedly admits). And it’s much older than the recent conflicts in the news. A good perspective is the third comment, by Jaber Al Ghanem.

Unfortunately, discourse in politics and religion revolve around our core beliefs, much more so than discourse in business. As a result, discourse degrades to arguments around long-standing issues and beliefs. And the arguments are religious in nature, rather than logical. To a believer, a tautology is overcome by faith, and the arguments can never be won by either side. The result is soured workplace relationships and lack of trust in former comrades, neither of which is conducive to good business practices.

So my rule is Politics, Religion and Business: Just Don’t Go There!

“Can I have your business card?”

That question comes barreling down my ears, breaking my train of thought. I was just outside the entrance to a meeting rooms truggling to tap out a text message a few minutes before the start of an SVASE event. Looking up, I’m surprised to find someone very close to me. So startled, and preoccupied by my other task, I dig in my card wallet and hand him my card.

“Thanks,” he says, and starts to walk away. So I ask him who he is and what he does. He tells me his name, and that he’s looking for a CEO to replace him because he can’t raise any funding for his project that does [...] He then walks away.

At that point, I realize that ‘ve done this dance with him before. And that it’s no surprise that he can’t find a CEO.

I figure he was treating the event the way some people treat LinkedIn – the name of the game is to get as many cards (links) as possible, regardless if you actually have a real relationship.

Shouldn’t you establish a relationship, and a common desire to communicate in the future before trading contact information? If I give you my card (after asking if I may), shouldn’t you reciprocate, and give me yours? What if I’m not part of the event, and just happen to be standing in front of the door?

[As a side note, I often violate the Japanese business card etiquette, in that I write notes on the back of the card to remind me of who the person is, where I met them, and what we talked about. All of this data goes into my outlook contact database when I get to my computer. However, I never do this in front of the person, as that would be truly insulting (especially to the Japanese, who would consider it writing on their face. When I receive their card, it stays in front of me until I'm sure I remember their name, and then it goes into my portfolio, business card wallet, or briefcase. It never goes into my wallet, where I would 'sit on their face'.]

Whatever happened to networking etiquette?