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In an age of 'extreme pitching' and personal branding, it can seem as if
showing off is the only path to success. But is there a place for quiet people
too?
By Lennox Morrison
21 June 2017
As he back-flipped into an ice hole cut into the Baltic sea, Didrik Dege Dimmen
drew gasps from onlookers in Oulu, Finland. Waist-deep in freezing seawater,
his bare chest inked with his product s name, the 24-year-old Norwegian
proceeded to pitch his smartphone stabiliser to a panel of venture capitalists.
His performance may have clashed with the unwritten Nordic law of Jante , a
cultural norm that ostentation should be frowned upon. But Dimmen went on to
win first prize in the 2016 Polar Bear Pitching contest 10,000 euros
($11,128) and a stay in Silicon Valley plus global publicity and fresh
contacts.
It was a highly efficient way of marketing ourselves, he says. Since
co-founding FlowMotion Technologies in Oslo two years ago, the start-up s
increasingly visible public profile has helped attract $1.3m in funding.
Showing off, getting noticed and cultivating a personal brand is becoming
increasingly important
While jumping half-naked into ice-cold water is perhaps an extreme way to get
funding, it s part of a trend where showing off, getting noticed and
cultivating a personal brand is becoming increasingly important.
Pitch contests such as this are proliferating worldwide, with new genres such
as 'start-up battles' and weekend-long events popping up all the time. The more
extreme versions pose eye-catching challenges to hopeful entrepreneurs such as
Thea Myhrvold, who pitched her online learning platform Teach Me Now in the
back of a car lapping a race track at 112 mph (180 kmh). The 27-year-old went
on to win the 2015 Infiniti Speed Pitching final in Hong Kong and $40,000 in
cash.
Reality television has also wholeheartedly embraced the concept of the
outlandish investment pitch. Programmes like Dragon s Den, Shark Tank and
Adventure Capitalists all featuring entrepreneurs pitching investors for
funding can be found in nearly 30 countries around the globe. Even tech giant
Apple has joined in, with a new show featuring app designers pitching their
product to celebrities while descending a large studio escalator.
It s one thing to show off for the cameras, but research suggests that
shrinking violets may be on the decline in general. A 27-year study of American
university students found in 2008 that levels of narcissism were rising, and
the researchers noted that their findings complemented previous studies showing
increases in other individualistic traits such as self-esteem and extraversion.
Likewise, a 2011 study into the rise of narcissism in modern China found that
this was indeed the case among younger Chinese.
He who shouts the loudest
Reality television has had a hand in shaping this look-at-me ethos, says
Jonathan Hirshon, a Silicon Valley PR strategist behind launches for Sony,
Apple and Pioneer.
After the US scriptwriters strike a decade ago, reality TV kicked into high
gear, giving rise to Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and the Jenners, says San
Francisco-based Hirshon. What we ended up with is the idea of living one s
life publicly, he says.
It s an aspiration facilitated today by a vast array of social media platforms
dependent on billions of people sharing details of their life and thoughts in
varying degrees of digital exhibitionism. The rise of YouTube stars and
Instagram influencers has further emphasised the importance of standing out
from one s peers with a strong personal brand.
It seems that your ideas, hard work and talent won t get you very far, unless
you can learn to shout about them and show them off
Hirshon says the concept of showing off began overlapping into the business
world in the mid 90s, when Silicon Valley started taking off in a big way. The
competitive culture and rivalry for funding expressed itself in pitching
contests with increasing demands on participants to bring entertainment value
to their presentation. And this attitude continues to build today.
There are so many new companies coming out of the woodwork in the last few
years that people have decided that they need to shout as opposed to whisper.
In this environment, it may seem that your ideas, hard work and talent won t
get you very far, unless you can learn to shout about them and show them off.
But what do you do if that s not your style?
A cultural advantage
For Hirshon, the trending tendency towards showing off is an unfortunate one.
A lot of the companies that are shouting have the least viable technology and
the worst business plans, he says.
The danger in rewarding showing off is that it favours certain personality
types
It also puts people from more reserved cultures at a disadvantage. Boasting in
Japan is the fastest way to get nowhere, he adds. Boasting in the Nordics is
the fastest way to go nowhere. That s a problem because their cultures are
antithetical to places like the US and the UK, where shouting has become the
norm."
Conversely, being too modest in more boastful cultures can put you at a
disadvantage, says Charlene Solomon of RW3 CultureWizard, an online
intercultural training platform. In a job interview or pitch in the US, you
have to be willing to talk about yourself, because if you understate your
capabilities it can even ruin a deal.
The danger in rewarding showing off is that it favours certain personality
types, warns clinical psychologist Ros Taylor, who works as a executive coach
as well as teaching business at Strathclyde University in the UK. The common
wisdom in many companies is that the best leaders need to be extroverts who see
the big picture and can talk about it boldly, she says.
It means everything is bluff and bluster and nothing has any bottom or
credibility, says Taylor. That s a worry because the quieter, more
contemplative person the reflector is often the one with the sterling idea
and the creative thinking.
True diversity is about having different types of people around the table, and
that means introverts and extroverts - Ros Taylor
I spend my time going round boards and senior teams and saying, 'No, no, no
there is no one type of person to be a leader'. True diversity is about having
different types of people around the table, and that means introverts and
extroverts.
Even when it comes to leadership, a reserved personality may well out-perform
louder rivals. A recent study of more than 2,000 CEOs found that introverts
were more likely to surpass the expectations of their boards and investors than
charismatic extroverts.
If you can t beat em
If you feel you need to be more visible, but being outspoken doesn't come
naturally, is there anything you can do?
From her work as an executive coach, Taylor believes everyone can learn to
speak up for themselves, and says quiet people who steel themselves to be just
slightly larger than life can experience remarkable success.
Before coaching sessions with Taylor two years ago, 44-year-old Gerry Tyrrell
would sit silently in meetings. As an experienced financial controller at a
mulitnational technology firm in Scotland, he was confident in his expertise,
but felt inhibited about speaking up. Especially, he says, when colleagues
would sometimes become more bullish and adopt a high-five mentality to make
their points.
He had always worked in the background, spotting financial risks and sharing
his guidance with people before or after big meetings, but felt a lack of
recognition was not helping his career. I knew I needed to project myself a
wee bit more.
Tyrrell says that coaching has given him the confidence to slow down, to pick
one or two key points and to get his message across
Softly spoken, and with a tendency to talk faster when nervous, Tyrrell learned
to slow down, to pick one or two key points and to get his message across. So
is he ready to stand in the spotlight in the way that extreme pitchers do? Two
years ago there s no way that I d have done that. Now I d do it but I wouldn t
be over-the-top. I d deliver things my way.
Hirshon, who s been a judge at Polar Bear Pitching, has had to coax a modest
entrepreneur to be more effusive.
I had a client in Sweden who had incredible facial recognition technology,
better than anything else on the market, and they consistently went out and
talked about [their] decent technology, he recalls. I finally trained them
to say that We actually have something that is unique .
Even so, he believes not everyone should have to learn to speak up.
When everybody shouts, it s the person who whispers that gets heard, he says.
If a company has a great product, if you communicate it in a low key and
factual way, people will get it, people will understand it.