the best entrepreneurs don’t excessively self-promote
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” -Joel Barker
I ran across a post from David Spark on Mashable last week that discussed how to jump start your career by becoming an online influencer.
David’s post has the ability to misguide entrepreneurs.
As entrepreneurs, our goal shouldn’t be to influence by talking. Entrepreneurs influence by doing. Entrepreneurs influence by building products that change the way we live.
How much of the careers of the following tech titans were built (or even jump started) by excessive self-promotion?
- Steve Jobs
- Bill Gates
- Michael Dell
- Marc Andreessen
But, Gabe, those guys built their reputation in the old-school tech world. Fine. What about the guys who built the platforms that we self-promote on?
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Twitter folks: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams (also built Blogger)
Exactly. We don’t know the names listed above because they self-promoted on FB, Twitter, etc. We know their names because they built those freaking platforms.
Does this mean that we shouldn’t create great content, interact with others online, or do some form of self-promotion? Absolutely not (in fact, I’m going to self-promote by publishing this on Twitter). It just means that we should keep it in check. Make sure that underlying your self-promotion is actual substance.
