Do You Want To Be The Next Mark Zuckerberg? I Hope Not.

The much-hyped premiere of The Social Network has everyone buzzing. Did the launch of Facebook play out as the movie portrays it? Is Mark Zuckerberg really so self-absorbed and calculating? Does the movie paint an accurate picture of a new generation of entrepreneurs? And perhaps the most dangerous question of all: Do I have what it takes to be the next Mark Zuckerberg?
Don't misunderstand. I'm not a Zuckerberg hater. In fact, I'm pretty grateful to the guy for transforming the way I work, write, and, yes, socialize. What concerns me most about The Social Network is that movie's fans, many of whom are bound to be young and ambitious, will walk away with a very skewed perception of what it means to be an entrepreneur, and what it takes to start a business. While the movie is ostensibly based on fact, its writer, Aaron Sorkin, is quoted in New York Magazine as saying "I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling."

But the bottom line is that neither the movie nor the true to life Facebook/Zuckerberg story (and all the countless versions of how fact and fiction intersect) is typical of the new generation of start-ups that I call "upstarts." As a journalist, my own fidelity is to truthful storytelling, so here are a few truths about young entrepreneurs that you won't find in The Social Network, but that I've verified through my own reporting.

1. Partnerships are common and effective. Approximately 60% of the young entrepreneurs I interviewed for Upstarts! had started companies with one or more partners. Sure, some of them made unwise decisions about who they went into business with, but ownership feuds and lawsuits were the exception rather than the rule. As Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Savarin discovered, the wrong partner chosen for the wrong reasons can have disastrous consequences. So how do you avoid that? You make sure that you and your partner have similar values and a common vision for the company. And you draw up a formal partnership agreement that not only spells out the ownership breakdown, but the division of day-to-day responsibilities. Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman, the co-founders of College Hunks Hauling Junk, are excellent examples of a partnership that works.
2. Everyone is not a geek. Yes, new technology-related companies get a lot of press. Companies like Yelp, Foursquare, Zynga, Tumblr, Posterous, and Groupon send the message that cool technology plus a weird name is the fastest and most lucrative route to success. But don't be fooled. There are plenty of successful young entrepreneurs operating largely under the radar in just about every industry imaginable. They publish magazines and books (Mental Floss), make pickles (McClures Pickles), sell fabric (CityCraft), move furniture (Meathead Movers), and produce wine (OneHope). More often than not, they're shaking up traditional industries by putting their own unique spin on products and services. And while technology is often critically important to their success, it's often not the heart and soul of the company. So if you don't know how to code, so what?
3. Bootstrapping rules. Let's get this straight right now. A painfully small percentage of start-up companies attract venture capital and that's not necessarily a bad thing at all. There's a lot to be said for bootstrapping. It forces you to make tough decisions about resource allocation, it compels you to remain humble, and it keeps the majority of ownership where it belongs -- in the hands of you and your partners. The good news is that it's never been easier, faster, or cheaper to start a company. Thanks to cloud computing, the growing popularity of virtual workplaces, a vast population of highly experienced unemployed executives, not to mention the free resources available at colleges and universities, poverty is not a barrier to entrepreneurship.
4. Collaboration trumps competition. Idea theft and power machinations keep us on the edge of our seats in The Social Network. In the real world, they also lead to a toxic corporate culture and severe sleep deprivation. Maybe that's why most of the young entrepreneurs I speak to are far more interested in collaborating than competing. They're far more likely to share ideas than the older entrepreneurs I've covered in the past and many are frighteningly cavalier about idea theft. After all, if you tell enough people about your idea, aren't you just begging someone to steal it? Well, yes. But the downside of remaining secretive is that you deprive yourself of a lot of good advice and feedback. Besides, an idea is worthless without the drive, talent, and vision to bring it to life. And that's not something anyone can steal.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user denyterrio, CC 2.0