The British believed in their Empire. They believed that it was right to put Squash courts and Polo fields in far flung countries. They believed that Britishness was the most natural state of man. The French, Russians and eventually the Germans felt the same way about themselves, only more so and less sucessfully. These empires were Goliaths and their people were proud of them.
The US was the first major colony to successfully break free from the Brits. The most formidable military force ever deployed sailed into the East River and bore down on a bunch of un-uniformed barefoot rabble representing our (at that time) pathetic revolution. Yet somehow we won. That picture was chopped up and burned into the DNA of every American. We re-live it when Bruce Willis crawls through air-ducts and elevator shafts to outwit German terrorists. And again when he leads his band of blue collar drillers to blow up a merciless asteriod. And his goals are simple too. Bruce just wants to get home in time for dinner whereas James Bond is "keeping the British end up." Americans are wary of higher causes which makes them distrust things bigger than themselves.
It's everywhere in this country, Big is bad and small is good. We hate Wallmart, Microsoft, Nike and Exxon. Nevermind that Target, Adobe, Reebok and Shell are doing the exact same thing as their bigger counterparts. They're not big so we can't hate them. The only thing that will "kill" Google (IBM / MS style) will be bigness. We will turn against them once they become Goliath.
Our people (formerly your people) banded together way back then and forged our ideals in violent reaction against bigness. And so it's been ever since. We were the 12th biggest army just before WWII and few thought we would outlast the Soviets. But once the Soviet Empire fell we became Goliath and we have hated ourselves ever since. The Brits and Russians in their prime would have no problem with Iraq. The Russians would roll in and kill everyone and the Brits would pit the Sunnis against the Shias and colonize what's left. We have gone in half cocked and we don't truely believe that it's our place to tell other people how to live. It is cruely ironic that we may have to sail back across the pond and ask our British cousins how we can best play the part of Goliath.
This is all a long way of saying that revering startups is just natural to us. It's what we've always done and for better or worse, it's all we know. I'm actually not sure why they were ever called startups. Upstarts is way more fitting...
Thanks for the history lesson. Now, let an Irish man (same former 'colony' issues as you Yanks) who's based in the UK, point out that the largest population in the USA is of German origin and the second is Irish. The closest vote in US Senate history was to vote your national language be German (lost by one vote) and it was the single most important factor in the USA staying out of WW2 for so long (apparently, I'm not sure I agree with that, nor am I here to start a American/Europe historical/factual dispute).
Arguably it was the British who were being entrepreneurial then as, put in historical context, colonising countries was primarily for economic gain - Land equalled money then, through taxes. We replaced the aristocracy with the government, which is now collecting the taxes instead. When we created the government, the Aristocracy had to find new vehicles for wealth creation so the created 'Corporations', hence why all big trade missions were funded by entities like the 'Corporation of London'. This gave the rich a way of passing wealth down the family without being taxed on it.
The David / Goliath analogy is rather paradoxical as it is American companies that lead globalisation and are the largest in the world. Google has a turnover in the BILLIONS; sorry that's not quite mom and pop corner store.....they are a goliath. But I am not here to give business lessons.
Please allow me to try focusing this discussion. I am interested in your brain/personality/experience. I'm asking YOU, as individuals and Americans how you feel. How does starting up make YOU feel? I believe the answer lies in societal norms and, therefore, American attitudes. This, I agree, has to do with historical trends.
I agree with the first two paragraphs, but not the rest of it. Somewhere in US history, things changed. The average American is clearly accepting, if not loving, of Walmart and other big companies, otherwise they would not be the juggernauts they are today. There would not be over 3800 Walmarts in the USA alone if we loved small and hated big.
We have a love hate relationship w/ our captains of industry. We glorify their rise and then sue them into a corner and call them robber barrons when they get too big. I would say walmart is reaching its tipping point. MS has passed it and spends most of their revenues on lawyers. Walmart is close behind. As of now they get sued every 5 minutes.
I think that's sufficiently explained by noting bigness makes you more worth suing, and the associated power and high stakes tempt you to do stuff that deserves suing.
Nobody makes scathing documentaries about Burger King, Target or Ford. McDonalds, Wal-Mart and GM are the lightning rods for our hatred of bigness. The smaller guy's legal fees are also way lower in relation to their size than their bigger counterparts. If you have an economist login check this out:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E...
Yes, that's right David could afford to buy a new 'slingshot' with the spare $1.6 BILLION dollars he had just lying around. What is a Goliath to an American?? Boots - to - big - for, comes to mind.
Comments
American's love David and Europeans love Goliath.
The British believed in their Empire. They believed that it was right to put Squash courts and Polo fields in far flung countries. They believed that Britishness was the most natural state of man. The French, Russians and eventually the Germans felt the same way about themselves, only more so and less sucessfully. These empires were Goliaths and their people were proud of them.
The US was the first major colony to successfully break free from the Brits. The most formidable military force ever deployed sailed into the East River and bore down on a bunch of un-uniformed barefoot rabble representing our (at that time) pathetic revolution. Yet somehow we won. That picture was chopped up and burned into the DNA of every American. We re-live it when Bruce Willis crawls through air-ducts and elevator shafts to outwit German terrorists. And again when he leads his band of blue collar drillers to blow up a merciless asteriod. And his goals are simple too. Bruce just wants to get home in time for dinner whereas James Bond is "keeping the British end up." Americans are wary of higher causes which makes them distrust things bigger than themselves.
It's everywhere in this country, Big is bad and small is good. We hate Wallmart, Microsoft, Nike and Exxon. Nevermind that Target, Adobe, Reebok and Shell are doing the exact same thing as their bigger counterparts. They're not big so we can't hate them. The only thing that will "kill" Google (IBM / MS style) will be bigness. We will turn against them once they become Goliath.
Our people (formerly your people) banded together way back then and forged our ideals in violent reaction against bigness. And so it's been ever since. We were the 12th biggest army just before WWII and few thought we would outlast the Soviets. But once the Soviet Empire fell we became Goliath and we have hated ourselves ever since. The Brits and Russians in their prime would have no problem with Iraq. The Russians would roll in and kill everyone and the Brits would pit the Sunnis against the Shias and colonize what's left. We have gone in half cocked and we don't truely believe that it's our place to tell other people how to live. It is cruely ironic that we may have to sail back across the pond and ask our British cousins how we can best play the part of Goliath.
This is all a long way of saying that revering startups is just natural to us. It's what we've always done and for better or worse, it's all we know. I'm actually not sure why they were ever called startups. Upstarts is way more fitting...
Thanks for the history lesson. Now, let an Irish man (same former 'colony' issues as you Yanks) who's based in the UK, point out that the largest population in the USA is of German origin and the second is Irish. The closest vote in US Senate history was to vote your national language be German (lost by one vote) and it was the single most important factor in the USA staying out of WW2 for so long (apparently, I'm not sure I agree with that, nor am I here to start a American/Europe historical/factual dispute).
Arguably it was the British who were being entrepreneurial then as, put in historical context, colonising countries was primarily for economic gain - Land equalled money then, through taxes. We replaced the aristocracy with the government, which is now collecting the taxes instead. When we created the government, the Aristocracy had to find new vehicles for wealth creation so the created 'Corporations', hence why all big trade missions were funded by entities like the 'Corporation of London'. This gave the rich a way of passing wealth down the family without being taxed on it.
The David / Goliath analogy is rather paradoxical as it is American companies that lead globalisation and are the largest in the world. Google has a turnover in the BILLIONS; sorry that's not quite mom and pop corner store.....they are a goliath. But I am not here to give business lessons.
Please allow me to try focusing this discussion. I am interested in your brain/personality/experience. I'm asking YOU, as individuals and Americans how you feel. How does starting up make YOU feel? I believe the answer lies in societal norms and, therefore, American attitudes. This, I agree, has to do with historical trends.
I really should have said Americans hate "The Biggest" rather than "The Big" (see my comment below.)
I agree with the first two paragraphs, but not the rest of it. Somewhere in US history, things changed. The average American is clearly accepting, if not loving, of Walmart and other big companies, otherwise they would not be the juggernauts they are today. There would not be over 3800 Walmarts in the USA alone if we loved small and hated big.
We have a love hate relationship w/ our captains of industry. We glorify their rise and then sue them into a corner and call them robber barrons when they get too big. I would say walmart is reaching its tipping point. MS has passed it and spends most of their revenues on lawyers. Walmart is close behind. As of now they get sued every 5 minutes.
I think that's sufficiently explained by noting bigness makes you more worth suing, and the associated power and high stakes tempt you to do stuff that deserves suing.
Nobody makes scathing documentaries about Burger King, Target or Ford. McDonalds, Wal-Mart and GM are the lightning rods for our hatred of bigness. The smaller guy's legal fees are also way lower in relation to their size than their bigger counterparts. If you have an economist login check this out: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E...
Americans do hate WalMart. But they still shop there.
How long till Google becomes Goliath?
Yes, that's right David could afford to buy a new 'slingshot' with the spare $1.6 BILLION dollars he had just lying around. What is a Goliath to an American?? Boots - to - big - for, comes to mind.