by Aner Ravon
The basic concept of Guru-ism seems to be triggering a lot of emotional reactions and discussions. Fellow blogger compatriot, Uri Baruchin (and got a billboard push by Guy Kawasaki) and even I myself have touched on it at a point.
Oren Friedman sent me the following with a disclaimer (“I hope it’s not too aggressive for the blog”). Oren is my rational alter-ego. I like looking at certain things from a semi romantic perspective (“If it adds real value a business model shall be found”). Oren is a big believer in the basic sense of the business model. He first counter-analyzes whether there is an actual rational and sustainable story behind the flashes. We agree much more frequently then we disagree though, and one element we definitely share is basic resentment to Gurus and Guruism. We both still keep track of their activities of course…
What is it that keeps us so emotionally charged whenever gurus open their mouths? What is it that makes one a guru? And at the bottom line, how should we treat gurus? Is guruism the Industry’s version of projected relationship we have with our parents?
Anyway, Oren’s piece is as always enlightening and definitely not too aggressive. Here goes:
“For a while now I’ve been meaning to sit down and write a piece on Internet Gurus. You know who they are – the ones with the sexiest blogs, the ones who sit on industry panels, who get interviewed all the time, who sit on boards and who (sometimes) make investment decisions.
The archetypical Guru is someone who struck gold during the .COM (note the DOT) craze, and is now considered one of the “elders”. His (or her) opinions will most of the time be on the bleeding edge, putting down the conventional in favor of “new and exciting” ideas/methods/processes. He’ll have plenty of advice on how you should run your business, build your products and what not. And of course, everything is sugar coated with an icing of cliches. Smart and up to date, but nonetheless cliches. Oddly enough, if you were to actually present them with a business proposition which incorporates their innovative/radical/new ideas, chances are they’d turn you down (as investors).
You also have the “self proclaimed” experts. Typically you’ll see him/her writing columns in a magazine/newspaper; his opinion will be solicited whenever news breaks, etc. He has never actually DONE anything, but he is opinionated, and, well. seems to know a lot about everything. Think of the folks who regularly write @ Wired, PC Mag, etc. This expert kind of reminds me of those folks who peddle seminars/books about how to make the killer stock investment. You can’t help wondering, if they have all the know-how and know the secret of how to pick the right stocks, why are they sharing this with me, and how come they don’t already rule the world as the richest of the richest…
Anyhow, as I was putting my thoughts in order, it suddenly struck me that I could just as easily replace Internet Guru with Consultant, and my commentary would (IMHO) still be valid. That’s when serendipity really kicked in. I pulled out my worn copy of Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics, and revisited his chapter on “What Makes a Perfect Parent?“
When you read this section, simply replace “parenting experts” with “Guru” or “consultants“, “parent” with “entrepreneur” and “children” with “your business“:
No one is more susceptible to an expert’s fearmongering than a parent. Fear is a major component of the act of parenting. A parent, after all, is the steward of another creature’s life, a creature who in the beginning is more helpless than the newborn of any other species. This leads a lot of parents to spend a lot of their parenting energy simply being scared. The problem is that they are often scared of the wrong things. It’s not their fault, really. Separating fact from rumors is always hard work, especially for a busy parent. And the white noise generated by the experts – to say nothing of the pressure exerted by other parents – is so overwhelming that they can barely think for themselves. The facts they do manage to glean have usually been varnished or exaggerated or otherwise taken out of context to serve an agenda that isn’t their own.”
My point?
Just because someone struck gold in the ’90s (many Gurus are one-hit-wonders), does not mean they know how to run your business, or are in a position to make any comments about it. Remember that successful enterprises (success defined not by how much money you raised, but by how much money you made), are driven by FACTS and by ANALYSES.
Consider Google (and I’m referring to Google the media/search company, not the Google Talk company) – its business is all about being informed, all about looking at market data, analyzing it, and coming up with better solutions and better business models. Yes, it is (was?) a very sexy company and a sexy story, but the secret for success was kick-ass technology coupled with an extremely diligent corporate culture, focused on results as a function of available facts/data. The same applies to eBay, and most (if not all) of the successful Internet ventures. Turns out that successful enterprises follow established processes and time-proven business strategies. What a surprise.
So don’t flip your business upside down just because a blog recommended it as the “business fad of the day”, don’t throw out everything they taught you at B-school (though a lot of it WAS junk), don’t get caught up in the self-embracing hype (”we’re so good, this is so good, the industry is so good, I mean, so and so said so, right?”). Remember – you, and only you, bear the responsibility for your business. Everyone else have their own agenda to promote.
When it comes down to it, there’s not much you can do with the Guru’s “advice”, other than feel that you’re left out in the cold and everyone else knows better. Just relax, and remember that the Guru would not give you the time of day if YOU were to approach them with the same clichés they are feeding you.
Many people got lucky in the 90’s. Yes, lucky. You can easily figure out who they were. You had the ones who actually did a great job of building sustainable companies (Checkpoint, Comverse, Amdocs, Cisco, Yahoo, eBay, even Amazon (so-so) and many others). Then again you had the ones who got lucky – they capitalized on the hype, they bought low and sold high, but have accumulated no tangible experience related to actually building and running a sustainable business. And when luck ran out, well, we all now how that hype ended…”
Aner Ravon
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And they got blogs that decide if a certain software is boat on wheels or convergence before they did it themselfs . Dont ya think your Shooting yourself in the foot in some cases? There are idols who make profit out of selling the ideas that helpt them make a buck or (Million) or two . your totaly right about them . There are alot of False prophets lecthuring about stuff they think they know 20 years ago when they were relavent (universitys are filled with them , Packed more likely…) But about the “Opinion” guys you refered to , What makes you diffrent then them? Arnt we all just critics eventualy? Does Michellen ever opened a friggin restuarnt in his life ? no but that didnt stop him from rating them .
06.05.06 @ 11:40 amI understand your point Alon but I think there are two distinctions:
1. Making Money and fame out of your opinion is something that seperates “gurus” from just regular opinionated people.
2. Actually people like Oren, myself and others have “done” a lot more then many gurus I know. The trenches teach more then anything else.
Again, it’s ok to be opinionated of course. But when your opinion becomes your primary activity and more importantly it generates confusion between eloquance and real depth, that’s when it becomes abusive and misleading.
06.05.06 @ 5:11 pmA comment re critics and gurus:
A critic passes judgment/voices an opinion on something with which he has firsthand experience - a movie, a dinner, a product or a service. His message is targetted at the user/consumer audience, not at the vendor - the film critic does not tell the director what he should do, but simply judges the result.
A critic (a good one that is) does not over-simplify or over-generalize his message (”Comedy is dead”), else he/she will lose whatever trust he has accumulated.
On the other hand, the guru gives YOU, the entrepreneur/manager advice on how to run YOUR business, even though he has never seen it, has no clue in what environment you are operating, etc. As a result, the guru uses cliches and generalizations (”Marketing is dead”, “Personalization is god”).
As for academia and scholars - I would discount their books, which are often nothing more than a collection of case studies and cliches, but I would not dismiss their research (published articles), which, unlike most gurus’ stuff, are based on data rather than on “gee, I think today’s buzzword is ‘blog’”. Having spent some time around them (an unfinished PhD), I am a true believer in scientific analysis of social/behavioral phenomena.
06.05.06 @ 9:28 pmOren, could you share some recommended relevant resources?
06.05.06 @ 9:41 pmI agree, gurus and critics are different animals. But they are definitely the same species. Frankly, gurus are simply, in my view, very well voiced and well heard critics. And, to be completely fair, some gurus deserve their status. Moreover, the existence of gurus and role models in a certain field are important driving forces for the field.
The problem, I feel, isn’t with the gurus themselves. Yes, some are false prophets, and yes, some are true wizards. The sad truth is that the vast majority of people want external leadership and guidance. Dogmatic gurus such as Robin Sharma (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari) and Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad) exist for a reason, and while I can dismiss their teachings as shallow, I must admit that for 90% of their reading audience, those books actually give something useful, something they should hear and use. The thing that bugs me about them isn’t their teachings - it’s their audience. It’s the audience’s gullibility and lack of critical filtering.
And it is especially risky to entrepenuers. Entrepeneurs should never forget that it’s all about themselves - what THEY make of their business, what THEY decide to do, what THEIR vision is, how well THEY plan, analyze and execute, what risks THEY are willing to take - and no guru, as talented as she may be, can replace your own critical thought process, or reduce your responsibility for your own business. Getting advice, using talented people where you need help, listening to gurus - that’s all extremely helpful. But at the end of the day it’s your call. You need to have the wisdom to listen to who you should, and the balls to disagree with them, even if they cast a 30-foot shadow of fame.
Entrepeneurship is all about leading the way and making something of your own - and you can’t outsource that.
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Hooray… Finally.
I define it fairly similarly… A guru is anyone who can make a passoniate speech, knowing 20% of the subject and making 80% of the rest while sounding 200% sure of him/herself.
Also, Gurus have great agents and PR firms working for them.
06.05.06 @ 3:45 am