SGN founder Shervin Pishevar, jetlagged and sleep deprived on a “secret mision” trip to Eastern Europe, wrote a long and partially lucid email to friends last night. I reprint it here because it captures much of the entrepreneurial spirit that drives so many of the men and women who we write about.
The full email, along with a YouTube clip, are reprinted below with Pishevar’s permission.
I find myself in a hotel in Eastern Europe after 3 days of red eye flights across 8 time zones on a secret mission for my start up. I have slept only 2-3 hours each day since Tuesday. It is in these sleepless hours, propelled by my inner drive to make a dent in world, where I find the solace to connect with the deepest parts my own soul. Some find that solace in yoga, exercise, religion, music. I find solace when I ‘do’- when every cell in my body is telling me that I am doing something that will move my ideas from my brain into the hands of millions of people. This is when I am most alive. I feel the power that we all have inside of ourselves to bring life to the dreams we all hold in our hearts from childhood and beyond.
In the inner sanctum of my own mind, solace focuses and clarifies the stream of my ideas and thoughts. I project these thoughts on the canvas of my life where I see them like moving picture frames interwoven with all the threads of my life experience. I look up at the window of my lonely hotel room on the 11th floor, illuminated by the white glow of my Mac Powerbook- a golden apple shining in the night- and see first my own reflection, and the world looking back at me- a world in forward motion. A world evolved; of knowledge and expertise no longer bound to geography or culture. Of experience and talent unbound and accelerating forward beyond the valley of our own experience and into every corner of the world. In my combined travels as an entrepreneur, I have seen an evolution in the last 10 years that is astounding. The world is us now and it’s pulling away.
A perfect storm has been brewing in my great country, America, whereby our competitive advantage- knowledge amalgamated with speedy execution propelled by an iron gut unafraid of risk- has now spread like a virus across the globe. We no longer have the monopoly on the classic American entrepreneurial spirit backed by angels and venture capital. The American Way has become the Global Way.
And yet this, I realize, at this very moment, is not a bad thing. It is a very great thing. It is the single greatest contribution we have made to the world. It now behooves us, the American entrepreneurs, to reach out to the talent that lies across the world, and embrace them. They need us as much as we need them-and it is a need that will not remain symmetric for long. They need us now but if we do not invest in building meaningful relationships and ties then they will evolve beyond us.
It is in this bridge that the future lies- it is in this future that hope lies. As much as we can teach others, we must be as open to learn from the world in return. We hacked our way into the American dream but we have not cracked the code on what that dream means in the 21st Century. This is the work of my generation. We must hack our way to a New American Dream in the 21st Century. While our financial systems lie teetering on near destruction, we realize we must build from the ground up a new system. That means our identity as a nation and culture will shift to reflect the quilted nature of a world not tethered by the traditional boundaries that kept out influences and isolated our evolution.
In the city I am in right now I was told that during the Communist regime they broadcast only 2 hours of television each day. One hour of that time was watching their ‘dear’ leader. There were no cartoons for children to watch. No movies to inspire. A generation was lost. I have seen the difference in the eyes of those born of that lost generation- an emptiness; a harshness; a coldness. But in the freedom generation who benefited from the fall of the Communist empire, you see a very distinct breed of American idealism, a hope for the future and the drive to get there. They haven’t figured out everything but they are hacking their way into that future. We must hack along with them.
Looking back at the window across the cityscape, I see reflections of my past and present- my immigrant family, my friends, my colleagues. I miss my two children, Cyrus, 11, and Darya, 8, who are so excited about the games I am building. I just got off the phone with them and Cyrus and Darya were pitching their new ideas for games. I raised them as a single dad for 7 years. My daughter, Darya, was in a Baby Bjorn (a Godsend for me), as I wrote my business plans in my garage. My son Cyrus, would attend Board meetings, crawling between Board members legs. They both would witness brainstorming sessions as they played with Legos and watched Baby Einstein.
I remember those moments and tears come to my eyes as I remember last week when Cyrus heard that our game iGolf had become the number one app on the iPhone. He said to me,” Daddy, I am proud to be your son. I am proud to have a father like you.” His statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Remembering all the sacrifice and hardships, I was floored by his love. It is moments like these that we live for.
Feeling nostalgic, I logged into Facebook to see pictures of my family and friends. As I logged in, I saw in my news feed a picture of Dave McClure’s son Dante dressed up as a Native American. I then went to view my albums and my kids. While viewing them I had another epiphany when I connected the dots between Facebook and a recent scene (please watch it below) from “The Wheel” episode of Mad Men. Draper is pitching a campaign for the “The Carousel”, the slide show projector, to representatives from Kodak.
In this scene, Draper, turns off the lights and begins to project personal pictures of himself with his family. As he speaks he says:
“[Teddy} also talked about a deeper bond with the product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a space ship; it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel. It’s called the Carousel. It let’s us travel the way a child travels; round and around and back home again to a place where we know we are loved.”
The look on the faces of the executives of Kodak as the lights come back on is so classic. Goose bumps rippled across my skin as I watched this scene. I remember my parents showing slides shows on their Kodak Carousel in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The dust in the air. The darkness of the room. The pride of my father as he projected our travels and vacations to us and friends. The delight in the eyes and voices of my parents and their friends as they watched and shared reflections of our recent past.
I realized at that moment, that Facebook, is my Carousel. Facebook is my time machine. It is my projector. It is a digital place where I know I am loved by my family and my friends. It is the room where my friends are showing me their slide shows from their lives, their travels. It is a slide show of the human soul. Of the human endeavor. It is the projector that brings clarity and focus to the lives of others. It brings us out of our inner sanctum and to the outer world of our relations. It displaces time and space and brings us back together again no matter how far or long we have been apart. We have all had that experience where you see your friend after 10 or 20 years and it feels like only a day has passed. That is because bonded human relationships are truly timeless. Those bonds can get tighter and stronger when we tap into the power of Facebook.
Those inside of Facebook must know and be driven by a higher mission and cause. They must realize that they should not treat their jobs as normal jobs. They are and should be on a mission to innovate around and extend Zuckerberg’s genius and make it ever more elegant, relevant, personal and inspiring. Facebook is not a technology. It is not a portal. It is not a media company. Facebook is a new form of human communication. It is more akin to the invention of a new language. A new language the world is learning to adopt, appropriate and make its own. It is about anthropology and psychology. It is about humanity. It is about evolution. It is more than a job. It is a cause. A cause whose form can affect the function of our world.
If the cause is extended correctly as a new form of communication it can make an ever bigger dent in the universe. The challenge for Zuckerberg as he scales is to weed out those who are in it for the cause and those that are in it for something else. He has always surrounded himself with amazing talent who deeply believe in the cause- like Sean Parker and Matt Cohler. And he has amazing talent and leadership like Sheryl Sandberg, Dave Morin, Chamath Palihapitiya, Ruchi Sanghvi and others who are deeply driven by the cause. A cause this important must remain pure to become a once in a century contribution to how we live our lives and how we exchange ideas and goods together.
Those who are building businesses around this cause must also put the cause first. We must not dilute it. This new form of communication is what can bring us together across boundaries in ways that make it efficient for an entrepreneur like me to build a global gaming company with talent from everywhere. I see what I do as a cause too. I see Social Games as also a new form of communication and entertainment as important as email, instant messenger and television. I see games bringing people together in new and fun ways that they have never had a chance to connect before. (fluff)friends is a great example of a new community filled with love, that connects people together in totally new ways and engenders loyalty and communication. Users create totally new content like videos and even a children’s book that no one could have ever predicted. By focusing on inspiration and user experience we will help evolve the form and the function and make it a part of daily life.
This new branch of gaming would not have been possible without Zuckerberg’s bold bet that openness leads to greatness for all. It’s an idea and meme that is spreading to every other closed system. Closed systems must go. Increased transparency married with open systems and user driven extensions and content will lead to a better world for all.
It is now 4:46 am here. I now will try to get some sleep and wake up in a few hours. There is another city to travel to. More connections to make with talented developers and artists and more dreams and ideas to bring to life to share with you all in the near future. The Carousel turns.
-Shervin Pishevar
Somewhere in Eastern Europe
September 27, 2008
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duh!
but really great article. Thanks TM (Transparent Mike)
Great article, but the part about Zuckerberg sorta ruined it. I was all in the zone too.
Zuckerberg isn’t genius, he’s just building a website with standard technology that’s been out there.
Good article otherwise though
Isn’t that even more remarkable? That Zuckerberg took widely used technology, and applied it to imitate websites that were already out there, and still was able to capture such market share?
Awesome. Every so often an articulate entrepreneur is able to put into words what the experience is all about. Mark Cuban had a great post to a similar end here - http://blogmaverick.com/2008/0.....usiness-2/
To put it succinctly it’s the feeling that if given the opportunity to be anywhere, doing anything you’d be exactly where you are, working on exactly what you’re doing
US House website, house.gov is down, can’t handle traffic, whats up?
Right on. And every so often main stream media does your cause a favor and sheds a little light for the rest of the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....%3Darticle
Thank you for posting this Mike! This is a great article that really puts into words the essence of entrepreneurs and now the great phenomenon of Global entrepreneurism. It literally brought tears to my eyes…
As an immigrant in the U.S. who happens to be an entrepreneur I can attest that what Shervin states is definitely a fact (I know it happened with me)..The world looking up to U.S. entrepreneurial drive and lessons to replicate and innovate in many cases their own local successes while continuing to look into the events and innovations that occur in the U.S. It’s a global village, but what an awesome responsability to have as entrepreneurs in the U.S. to know the world is looking to what we do. I was on the other side looking in, and I feel lucky and doing the best I can to be able to provide substance and innovation as we continue to learn from each other in this global economy.
Thanks!
Veronica Alvarez
What a soulful and passionate rant - great insight, too, about how the world is changing around us and evolving past us. Thanks for reprinting that!
The promise of America.
Great letter, but “Zuckerberg’s genius”? Coping an idea and making it better with hundreds of millions of $ is not genius… forcing the original team out and wasting investor’s money so he can flop around making funny comments is not genius… Hooking up with right initial VC partners was smart. Everything else is just a bit of luck.
Wow. This is an amazing letter. Thanks for posting Mike and thanks for your candor Shervin.
To most of it, and most of all this:
“Those who are building businesses around this cause must also put the cause first. We must not dilute it. This new form of communication is what can bring us together across boundaries in ways that make it efficient for an entrepreneur like me to build a global gaming company with talent from everywhere. I see what I do as a cause too. I see Social Games as also a new form of communication and entertainment as important as email, instant messenger and television. I see games bringing people together in new and fun ways that they have never had a chance to connect before. (fluff)friends is a great example of a new community filled with love, that connects people together in totally new ways and engenders loyalty and communication.”
Bullshit. You’ve got to be kidding me. Does anyone think Social Games are making the world a better place? Anyone?
Does “play” make the world a better place? I think the problem here is everyone’s illusion with what’s required to make the world a better place. No one is claiming social games will be the most profitable market to emerge. It’s just a variation on the play theme, which doesn’t hurt.
Yes, yes they can. I’m not even a gamer and I have little interest in games. But gaming is not the point. It’s that every little bit of “better” from all areas of business, culture and experience combine to make up the greater good of the world. If one game company can contribute their piece of the pie through their “cause”, then yes, the world is a better place.
Pleaaaaase!
Such a useless article! I just wasted 7 min of my life reading this!
He is trying to get Zuckerberg’s team on some deal, hence the brown-nosing. His message is cheesy and simplistic. Since when games are world changing? Especially SGN games!
I have heard of him many times and checked out his gig every single time. I guess it was because of the great PR behind him.
WebOS: went nowhere. now he calls himself the inital thinker behind web services.
FeeWebs: a geocities clone but with spam.
SGN: waste of time kinda games.
Posting this article on TechCrunch shows the PR behind this guy.
if you want a comment call his current pr - they probably had no clue he was going to eff this up.
Good one. What more to say?
Thanks, Mike.
- Vasudev
thanks for posting that mike… i was also teary-eyed reading Shervin’s post (& not just because he mentioned my kid).
the idea of the American Dream becoming a Global one & exporting the startup mentality is/are one of the best things we can contribute to the world… (and hopefully offsets some of our other less awesome recent contributions
Blew me away. A very inspiring article. I also believe in some of the concepts he talks about. Wow.
Man, what a load of crap. I used to work with shervin, and I have to say, the only thing he is good at is leeching off of others work. Right now he’s suing a former employee who worked for him at freewebs and made a facebook game before freewebs even got into games, and many months before shervin screwed everyone over at freewebs and left to make SGN. (In the process stealing a few talented people from the company he was hired to run) http://valleywag.com/5042436/c.....de-secrets The game happened to become very successful, so for some reason shervin feels he is entitled to part of it even though it was made in the employees off time, and at the time freewebs did not make games. No code was stolen, and no company resources were used to make the game. Knowing him personally, I saw him make one bad decision after another. The other thing he is good at is taking venture capital money and funneling it into his pockets. Freewebs had all sorts of tax troubles, and I know why. If I had to guess, I would say Shervin paid techcrunch to post this article (since when I worked with him, we talked about doing that quite a few times, and he said “Everyone has their price”) - I can assume this will be enough to get this comment deleted. Anyway, if you buy into this mindless SGN PR, let me know the reason. If you would like Tech Crunch to stick to news, speak up.
Though I doubt you can pay to get a post up on TC I am surprised that the self-aggrandizing in the post didn’t strike Arrington as too much bullshit. Even if gaming were going to save the universe (probably not) SGN’s games aren’t even original, so that’s a problem. Vinod Khosla and Josh Kopelman aren’t this self-righteous and they are doing things (or investing in things) that will change the world.
Remember this: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....n-provigil
Rambling posts? Inflated sense of self?
Quite possible!
Worked with him before. Bad manager. Awefulleader. Opportunistic only.
Screwed people over and over. I can’t believe that tech crunch published this self promoting article.
Michael, are you running out of subject/article to write?
I’ve heard many of the same things, all from his own employees… the guy seems like a real ass.
Mike, you go talk to some of the people this guy was worked with… esp. the scores of people that have left him.
Silicon valley type people like shervin for some reason but he is the most mediocre person I have met. Snake oil anyone?
sad but true - were he only the kind of leader at his past companies that this mail implies those companies and employees would be so much better for it.
It’s a sweet note.
BUT FACEBOOK IS A FREAKING WEBSITE WITH PHOTOS AND FEEDS. Period. It is not equivalent to a new language. Jeebus, that was so hyperbolic.
These megalomaniacs are just a crack-up. But you have to believe in your stuff beyond all rationality to go this far, I guess. And he does seem like a nice guy.
I can’t read this all the way through… I am getting nauseous. What a bunch of pap, indeed. He’s in Eastern Europe to sign some sort of fucking outsourcing agreement for the love of god…I mean come on… when dumb-ass IT capitalists start taking themselves this seriously (and I’m one, too), what is next? Michael, I thought that maybe you had a better sense of perspective…
I think he dropped in the wrong Europe.
Where in Europe are broadcasting only 2 hours TV? And by the way who he
thinks he is? A messenger that brings the “knowledge” from US to Europe?
Jeez!
He speaks about my country, but that was about 20 years ago in the Communist regime. I was about 7 at that time and we watched cartoons only 10 minutes on Saturdays and 20 minutes on Sundays. From Monday to Friday the national television broadcasted about 2h / day, from 7PM to 9 PM ( as I remember ) and there were only news and the leader’s speech.
Now the things have changed dramatically, we managed to get passed that black part of our country history.
good article, i enjoyed reading this.
http://gatesandjobs.blogspot.com/
I think at the time what he needed was a good sleep
World will not be a better place because of his social games. Wonder how much money he gives to charity to feed hungry people.
“…It is the single greatest contribution we have made to the world. ”
The greatest contribution America has made to the world is a two-parter: 1- defeating the fascists. 2- holding the Soviets at bay until their systems crumbled.
@meohme: Not entirely correct Sir, 1- Soviet’s actually defeated the fascists, giving us here a chance to prepare for war and bailing our ass out in Normandy… 2 - Agree with you on us kicking their ass on arms race and triggering the economic collapse of the Soviet Union.
How funny would it be if they would come to our help now and used their oil to bail our economy… but to bad, their own is in the puddle of borscht…
talk about way too long to read. just because the piece is long doesnt make it worthwhile to read. it was more butt kissing then inspiration. what Zuckerberg did was no way innovation. i find the myspace story more interesting but since they arent as cute a story as Zuckerberg the harvard dropout they get no press mention. they took the whole social network and music industry by storm giving for the first time individuals a place to be free and present their social life as they feel with no restriction . Zuckerberg genius who had to settle in court for stealing the whole facebook idea . dude had a silver spoon his whole life . most student if they hacked into the college network would be kicked out of school. my little rant at the butt kissing that was too long to read anyway.
what an a**hole
Oh, PLEASE. I know Shervin personally, and I can honestly say he is one of the most opportunistic, self-centered and unethical business men I have ever had the displeasure of working with. He may come off as a “nice guy” on the surface, but as I learned the hard way, it is a total ploy. He is just a salesman with no tech or leadership skills who has repeatedly hurt companies he has been a part of, riding on the backs of those who actually deserve success, while stepping on the backs of those who get in the way for his goal of being “famous” in the tech world. It is rather unfortunate so many people buy into him, I guess a convincing smile and friendly handshake can take you outrageously far.
Tactics of an aggressive business man? Sure. I am just disputing any reputation this guy may gain as skilled, ethical or inspiring, because it’s an absolute load of bull. Although, it’s hard to say whether he is conscious of his malicious actions or just an absent-minded opportunist. Con-artist or salesman, who knows for sure. Either way, someone I would NEVER associate with again, and a complete shame to witness the damage he has caused to so many good people. Look at his history, talk to any former employee who has worked with him long enough who has the guts to tell the truth.
In my opinion, avoid this man or get burned. If you work with him now and suspect something is awry, trust your gut. Don’t believe me? No reason you should, investigate for yourself.
so true. i am glad someone is able to come forward. all i know is that the valley is pretty small and what goes around comes around. finally, i believe in karma. i’ve crossed paths with him and i can only hope the truth about his man comes out sooner than later. but that post is a load of crap - come on you guys, seriously. read it again. and please, get this man off the crack pipe.
Don’t know the man or have any desire to do damage to his rep - deserved or otherwise - but this memo is quite a bit over the top. As a diary entry it would make some sense but to post it on the Web invites a discussion. So, for my part in the discussion, I will have to say that this comes off as self-aggrandizing clap-trap.
Nice original content… it’s just a 100% repost of Pishevar’s post. No TC perspective except that Pishevar is obviously full of awesomeness.
SGN makes games. Pointless little games that get up’d to the App Store before actually useful apps. (And ya… I gave iGolf a shot. It sucks. It’s not even a “game”.)
lol? quit the drugs shervin, you aren’t a superhero
Y’know readers, people CAN have different sides to their personalities (and I don’t mean in a personality disorder kind of way). Most entrepreneurs and have different facets of what drives them. I know I do. And I bet most of you do as well.
Sure I can dream of success and money and deals and parties and press and connections, etc. But there’s also “the cause” as referred to in the letter. When you know or work with someone, or you’ve read about their business in a blog, you see the external actions that constitute their work. Rarely, if ever, do you get to see what’s under the surface, the emotions that truly drive someone.
If you call this a load of crap, then perhaps you don’t understand. Maybe you don’t get that feeling. It’s this kind of criticism that causes most of us who are driven by passion to often keep it in. It’s a highly sensitive part of entrepreneurship that I don’t think every entrepreneur has inside of them, regardless of their level of business success.
Madmen? Life imitates art…
Forget the blood on Wall Street, starving homeless living on the streets and millions of folks walking away from their homes, we have Facebook and iGolf. Thank God for this second coming. Now the World is saved!
Get your hand off it, you Tugger! (That’s Australian for ‘Wanker’. That’s Australian for ‘Having a lend of yourself’).
What a great big pile of smelly from someone who is obviously a ‘Try-hard’.
i work with shervin. he consistently achieves a delicate balance of visionary zeal tempered by pragmatic consideration that inspires everyone around him.
most important, he treats his coworkers and subordinates with tremendous care and respect. he is interested in our personal lives, and understands that financial success is but one attribute of life success.
shervin refers to SGN in “family” terms and that spirit permeates our workplace environment every day. i am legitimately proud to call him both my boss and my friend.
Oh come on. Shervin stop commenting on your own posts.
what a joke….this is one of the dumbest yet on tc! oohhh daddy im so proud of you for an iPhone app. that’s hillarious! this guy is delusional
“In the city I am in right now I was told that during the Communist regime they broadcast only 2 hours of television each day”
Sounds like some kind of dream to me, rather than a nightmare. How much richer would life be without chewing gum for our eyes ?
This doesn’t come across as sincere or genuine as it should be, more calculated than straight from the heart imho. The bit about facebook is way over the top attributing more meaning to it than it can possibly hold, like comparing a plastic bowl to DaVinci.
Cmon folks there is has been huge progress for humankind in the last 100 years just map 1AD to 1900 and then 1900 to 2000AD. That’s 100 years of astonishing progress in all areas of human endeavour.
Facebook is irrelevant in that context and to ask Facebook employees to behave as if they are on a NASA mission is laughably naive, and smart folks are not naive and when they do appear naive you can take it for granted you are being manipulated.
However its possible that he is pouring his heart out and I don’t want to be one to make anyone feel the world is full of heartless cynics, but then the naivety - we all want to believe and we start off that way - has been taken advantage of too many times by the cold, calculating, soulless types who will do anything to get ahead and you learn to deal with it or cause yourself needless anguish.
i work with shervin. he consistently achieves a delicate balance of visionary zeal tempered by pragmatic consideration that inspires everyone around him.
most important, he treats his coworkers and subordinates with tremendous care and respect. he is interested in our personal lives, and understands that financial success is but one attribute of life success.
shervin refers to SGN in “family” terms and that spirit permeates our workplace environment every day. i am legitimately proud to call him both my boss and my friend.
Now that is funny!
Sharvin, did you post this comment yourself? Because you got to read the rest of the comments to see that everything you said under Jeffrey’s pseudo is crap!
I tend not to share my personal life on the Web, but it’s the morning of the new Jewish year and I just read this post–I feel compelled to share the following:
A year before I was born–I am 32 today–my father David, joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), a company which had a profound effect on my entire family and is responsible to where I am today with my life. DEC was an extraordinary company by any respect, even more so in Israel back in those days. I remember my dad explaining to people he uses “email” only to have them blink back–it was an amazing feat when normal mail worked back then, let along this “electronic mail”.
There was always a computer in my home, in fact, the computers all had modems–in the world that I grew-up in “connectivity” as we call it these days was a given. In 1984 my dad took a relocation gig and we moved to Boston. When I look back at the three years we spent there two memories in particular come up…. The first, my dad taking me to Toys R’ Us on my first day in the States. I was so overwhelmed that I left without buying anything–I had never before seen so many toys
The second memory was sitting with my dad in our picture perfect American home in front of a Rainbow 100. He initiated a chat session with a colleague over at DEC Israel, and that was my first chat session. There I am in 1984, a kid who can’t walk out of Toys R’ Us with a toy, but totally comprehends the notion of an Intranet, routers, servers and modems. Quite funny in retrospect.
I also spent our three years in Boston watching a great deal of television, sucking in and processing every piece of Americana that came my way. This in turn accelerated my control of the English language and I was consequently ejected out of ESL quicker than anyone anticipated.
In 1991 my dad was asked if he’d like to go help set-up DEC Hungary. For the next three years we had a front seat in watching a country dive into capitalism. DEC paid for my two siblings and I to go to a private school, namely, the American International School of Budapest. It was money well spent as we grew a deep appreciation of other cultures and different perspectives. This time my dad arranged for us to have two machines from DEC, one a desktop at home, and one a laptop for me. So on top of the concept of connectivity, I also grew up with the practicality of computer portability.
My family then moved to Zurich and I flew to the States for my undergrad degree–most likely impossible were it not for my dad’s career in DEC.
Fast forward to 2008… I am now a father of two living in Israel, covering Israeli startups for TechCrunch and working with a VC, helping them locate Web investments. Cole, our 3 year old, is growing up with the paradigm that everything that interests him can be found in video on YouTube. Yesterday we quenched his thirst to see tornados…
Two days ago, I along with my partner, pitched a startup we’re founding to the general manager of a top-tier VC. I own our startup’s vision top to bottom and I ended the pitch saying that it’s a culmination of my entire life experience. For anyone that thinks the “America Way” is theory, think again–I am proof. And as Shervin titled it, it’s now the “Global Way”–again, I am proof.
I have been very lucky so far and it’s time to give some credit to where it’s due… First, to my dad, David Carthy, who immigrated from Romania to Israel in 1960. His well to do family lost everything and found itself in a tin shack. His ambition and determination to give his kids the moon is what I model myself as a father on. Second, to Ken Olson, the legendary founder of DEC. He probably didn’t set out to create a company that would have such an impact on other people’s life… But it did. THAT’S the American Way.
So sorry to go all schmoopy on all of you
Shana Tova (Happy New Year) to All,
Roi Carthy
Givatayim, Israel
Sept. 30, 2008
“The world will be a better place because of social games.” Am I dreaming or what ?
This is one of the most idiotic thing I’ve never read here.
Roi! your story is more touching & authentic.
Roi - a much more heart warming account - congratulations
i think the post represents the cultural shift and feeling today, our own self-importance as bloated from within. FB is awesome but seems self serving to be pointing out specific people. I couldn’t finish the read as i was getting nauseous. Maybe i was a little jealous my name wasn’t mentioned which circle’s back to my opening line, “our own self-importance”:)
Loved the article uo until he sucked up to the facebook crew. SGN builds Facebook applications. Facebook is now making it very hard for app developers to make money. Maybe his ass kissing will get him some help in this area or he aspires to have Facebook buy his simple games.
I do respect his passion though.
What an idiot. If you company is not going anywhere (like his previous ones) suck up. All talk no game. what a fool
“Facebook, the Palo Alto-based social networking giant, has hired high-profile Washington lawyer Ted Ullyot as its vice president and general counsel, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ullyt, a former White House lawyer in the Bush administration who helped coordinate the response to the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity, will join Facebook next month. He also has served as the chief of staff to former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.” Can’t help but wonder whether this an example of a Facebook staff member who will be “driven by a higher mission and cause”?
in light of the wall street meltdown this is the best piece of entertainment yet - by the way the youtube post was the best part - how about that for making the world a better place?
All this over a trip to a third world country to find outsourced staff that’s cheaper to run and easier to control than in-house staff? This is the worst crap ever posted on TechCrunch (and I remember the early days). I guess I can understand the need, though… Shervin already lost half his company when they got fed up with his delusions or were fired for not sharing them.
Don’t dilute the brand ?! Why don’t we just get in line like a bunch of lemmings and follow our fearless leader who had the only good ideas the world is capable of having.
I agree with the others who are giving you possibly more credit than you deserve by saying you are self-delusional and/or trying to get us to believe that you’d buy the swill that you’re selling.
startups and entrepreneurship american inventions?
zuckerberg a genius?
the world looking up to america?
wat? wat?
appreciate the sentiment behind this letter… kinda…. but its an over emotional late night rant written in a hotel room while alone.
sweeping statements and traces of delusion of grandeur identified….
i think he means well, but really slow news days are plaguing TC or what.
if human struggle, triumph, cunning, love, hope and innovation inspires you, all you have to do is open your eyes and you will see it everyday, in every corner of the earth. i thought it was a bit arrogant to assume that the world is picking up ideas from the american dream etc. its all very presumptive and reeks a little bit of late night sentimentality.
looks like this guy had a slither of a spiritual moment. but as far as those go, this is pretty tame. if the carousel scene from Mad Men exemplifies the message of this cloying missive, i don’t see how anyone would find anything new or revelatory in this.
as someone earlier succintly said - “DUH”.
i dunno… i worked for shervin for a brief time and noticed he has a knack for finding clever or heavy-handed ways of making news, is obviously good at extracting money from VCs and knows how to stir things up and get people talking … about, well, his companies. i wonder: isn’t that sort of in the job description?
I read every response. Not that I have the time, but the combative posts beckon me to play… It’s intriguing, so many people cared who wrote this article and why. It’s not necessarily admirable to be naive about who’s trying to sell you what out there, and it’s almost fun to play cop—can’t get anything by me!—but on the other hand, a less burned approach to literature is relaxing. Ignorance can be bliss and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, am I right? I can’t enjoy villanizing others when I’m reading and relating to a personal essay, the cynical outlook just isn’t healthy considering the text alone is actually quite pleasant. And human. But because this author has incited such controversy among those familiar with him, let’s dissect… I get the idea his being a passionate person (positive or negative) is undebateable. All the more reason for the reader to believe he’s for real about the moment he’s in. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I doubt the article alone is going to convince masses of people to follow its author and his product and I also don’t think it’s going to score many brownie points; as all response posts have indicated, such efforts would be transparent. If this is true, the author’s said self-serving intent only does so much damage, agreed? However, flip side. The positive force this article awakens can stimulate readers’ emotions, imagination and intellect, regardless of author’s intent. Entrepreneurs and artists, perhaps all humans alike understand the rise of the feeling we call passion that comes from being handed opportunity, being permitted to do the work you love, feeling lucky for that, making sacrifices for that. It seems clear to me here that the author is in the midst of that euphoria. Whenever I have such an experience I think, ‘what would it be like if I could feel the value of all my work every day just like I do in this moment?’ Meaning, one doesn’t achieve an ‘invaluable world service’ high when doing 99% of daily labors, but every once in a long while—sometimes when we’re sleep deprived or successful—we encounter a perspective that lets us believe that what we have to offer might matter. I think it’s a wonderful gift for a person to bear witness to a sense of proof regarding the worth of their personal contributions or others’. That said, don’t get carried away. Work and passion can be like a drug, and create a false sense of pride and glamorize excessive self-sacrifice. Moderation tends to be difficult for passion-driven people and they’re proud of it. But the way I look at it, passion is just passion, art is just art, drugs are just chemicals and that can be what highs come down to (no pun intended). Borrowing the author’s passion-fed facebook praise to illustrate my point– Yes, facebook is a big deal and behind it is a big cause. But how big? As much as it materializes it’s worth. As much as any ‘friend’ sees in it and takes from it and believes in it. It is a successful tool connecting millions of people around the world and enabling these individuals’ personal efforts and causes to take flight (and I’m sure, other stuff I don’t even know). This is a monumental achievement and for reaching this new height, facebook has secured a place in history. Its story and evolution are without a doubt fascinating. Hey, I can be passionate about that, why not? My spirit is uplifted in believing in such an enterprise and at wondering what it ‘could mean’, how far its implications extend, where it’s going, what’s next?, etc. But even with all this building a pedestal, is the passion-backed product the be all end all? Is it ‘IT’? It’s not. Facebook won’t in and of itself complete a social life. At the end of the day it doesn’t hug you, tuck you in, make love to you. And there are many wise people not living life in the fast-paced work arena that are content without it too. It is everything that you choose to make it, yet it’s not practical for it to comprise one’s everything. I work in music and onstage and to me, performance art is transcendent. Sometimes it is healing, prompting discussion or entertaining. Maybe this comforts the soul, wonderful! But at its best, it is only what it is and I think adopting that kind of detachment is critical, especially when one embarks on a career dedicated to their passion. Because there is and will always be more to a person than their passion. Life is important. Sleep is important. Balance is important. Character is important. Yes, passion is special. But passion can be stupid. It can be cowardly and unwise, can be not edgy, not mature, not sexy, not meaningful, not constructive, not superior. And in this world, we should all keep ourselves in check. Realize we all contribute, not just a few. Every person makes a potentially huge impact, not just those graced with credit or the conviction passion ignites. We’re all making sacrifices and experiencing things, not just artists, extremists, workaholics and those with insomnia. Thanks for sharing posts everyone, very thought provoking.
Being delusional is NOT in the job description. Maybe all the investors who have wasted their money should double-check that.
Beautiful post… thanks for putting in print some of the feelings of an entrepreneur.