Commentary

High-Level Respect For Past Good For Start-Ups

Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the digital media industry has really grown up in the last few years.  Unfortunately, not everyone in the industry has grown up with it.

There are two competing camps in the digital media landscape: those who respect the past and those who don’t.  I for one was always taught to respect the past because it can tell you a lot about the future.  It can be argued that if you have an inherent distaste for the past it can be freeing because you are rarely, if ever, bogged down with the knowledge of what came before you.  I don’t subscribe to that idea, but some people do.

These dichotomous points of view are never more visible than they are in the start-up world, where there’s seemingly a war between the two.

I find that respect for, rather than ignorance of, the past is a sign of maturity. In start-up land, I see the visionaries who study, respect and learn from the past are the ones who succeed in the long run.  They know when they have to bend their vision vs. maintain a stubborn allegiance to it.  They know how much to change, and they learn from past incarnations and stories to help them know what to do.  The leaders who ignore the past and focus solely on their vision for the future tend to get replaced at some point, even though they may have been successful monetarily or on paper.  

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I see maturity as closely related to humility.  When we were younger, we knew it all; we could never be told how to do something differently unless we were convinced it would help.  The challenge was that it was extremely difficult to convince us of that.  As you get older, you gain more wisdom.

The digital media landscape is littered with companies and leaders that succeeded early but burned out later because they didn’t have a respect for what came before.   This can manifest in missed opportunities, failed mergers, poor hires.  

There are case studies all over the place that can be applied to help today’s leaders learn, succeed and grow.  I'd think that in Silicon Valley the support community of venture capital, incubators, angel investors, advisers and others would look to impart this knowledge to the leaders of today and tomorrow more than they do today.  I still run into leaders with an arrogance not coupled with respect, and I still see VCs and other people who are fueling the fire of those egos and ignorance.

This industry has experienced two cycles of up and down over the last 23 years.  There are people still chasing the dragon of the big start-up hit, and there are those who have become comfortable in their place, leading larger behemoth organizations and looking to lead through iterative change.  I think there’s a place for both, but I would hope that both sides could recognize the benefit of the other, and do so from the perspective of respect and humility — because, without these two elements, we risk the danger of a third collapse of some kind.

A crash at this time would be monumental, since there is so much more at risk.  Digital media has woven itself into so many aspects of daily life, one could argue it is too big to fail.  I am not one of those people.  Topics like data, privacy, viewability and attribution are key and need to be addressed across the board.

If you read this message and wonder if I’m writing about you, it’s possible.  If you read this message and you wonder why I am writing it, it probably has very little to do with you — maybe you’re one of the good ones.   A healthy dose of respect and humility is one of the most important tools you have at your disposal in a start-up.  Use it wisely, and you are destined for long-term success.

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