"... When you evolve out of start-up mode and start worrying about being professional and dignified, you only lose capabilities. You don't add anything... you only take away. Dignity is deadly. ..."
This is the crux of the article. If you have to get dressed up and wear a "suit", it doesn't make your software better. If you subscribe to the latest theory of "foo" because the "bar" association thinks it's good, it wont help you get more customers. The ideals of Professionalism and Profession are a mismatch for the Startup world.
The creation process in Startups is new markets, products and services. Not old ones. In fact, the best are trying to displace the old entirely. Put them out of business and make them extinct. It's messy, full of unexpected stops and starts. Not the calm, orderly and mastered process with known results as the ideals of Professionalism enshrine.
Professionalism has its place where the benefit of improvement has to be weighed with the risk of damage to the old and existing. An insurance policy against risk but a barrier to innovation.
"... Living only on take-out and caffeine. Working in a [small] living room. Crazy, stupid, unprofessional behavior. Wearing nothing but shorts and ripped t-shirts ..."
I love this quote. It neatly sums up the informality of the startup process and something people from more structured backgrounds have trouble grokking. At least it's another excuse get around in shorts + t-shirt, think and code up ideas rather than waste money on clothes.
I look at profanity in business the same way Groucho Marx looked at it in comedy. Comics resort to it because they're desperate; they can't get laughs any other way.
If you need to use profanity to get your point across in business, maybe you should pause and take a good hard look at your message.
This has nothing to do with "professionalism" vs. "passion". You could (and should) do both.
It has everything to do with how you treat other people (whether you know them or not). Shouldn't be so hard to do it all: be yourself, have passion, treat others well, be professional, and succeed like crazy.
Bah. Using profanity has more to do with the fact that established business doesn't like it. ("Look at me! I can break all the rules and still turn a handsome profit. Maybe someone has been lying to all of you.")
I love stepping on the limits of what is appropriate, just to see how people react... It's never any fun when it happens by accident, but it can be a real blast when I have figured out beforehand just what phrasing will make my counterpart slightly uncomfortable.
Probably this is why the paraphrased subjects use the words "penis" and "kick-ass". And it might also be that it is closer to the way they interact in their daily lives. My life certainly gets easier when I don't have to worry all the time about whether something is appropriate or not.
As far as I can tell (being an outsider) being "professional" in contemporary American business culture means subordinating by wearing a suit and tie, working exactly when the boss tells you to and doing unpaid overtime whenever it is required. That's hardly something to strive for, due to a host of obvious reasons that anyone younger than 30 should be able to figure out. An alternative interpretation would be that being profesional is to serve your customers, but that's not what I hear whenever someone mentiones the word.
Yes, you are an outsider. I haven't seen what you describe as "contemporary American business culture" in at least 10 years.
As far as "stepping on the limits of what is appropriate, just to see how people react" goes, fine. Whatever turns you on. Just don't be surprised when the other person's reaction costs you. It can happen (and probably will).
Personally, I'd rather spend my energy doing great work and succeeding, whatever it takes.
It's easy to get caught up in the profanity segment of this article, but I don't think that's the main point. I personally am not a fan of profanity in my personal or professional life, so I agree with edw519, but I get the feeling that the gist behind the article was more like "Why focus your energy on things that make you seem professional rather than doing a great job?" It's the difference between going out to get your haircut the morning of a big meeting or sitting in front of your computer burning code trying to put in that last feature you've been thinking about before you have to present. It's tossing ideas around through conversation and prototypes rather than through a monolithic "Business Requirements Document". Perhaps the suggesstion is that a common feature for small businesses that don't do so well is worrying first about the clothes and the office and the letterhead and the large staff, and second about the product.
One is turned off by stuffiness (as proxied via "business-speak" and "dignity") and one is turned off by, I don't know, "unreliability" (as proxied by profanity, not sure what else).
You can serve one or other, but not both (unless you have two separate brands and learn to fake the one you're not sufficiently well).
(I'd say that 'professionalism' in itself doesn't turn anyone off. Except that lots of people would have different definitions, including only the qualities they care about, so that's kind of a null statement.)
The article really just shows that business is creating artificial barriers to determine competence. Because not everyone can determine who is competent, we use proxies like a suit or one's manner of speech.
Unfortunately, it creates a group of people who benefit from that barrier and distracts from product and creative thinking.
This is the crux of the article. If you have to get dressed up and wear a "suit", it doesn't make your software better. If you subscribe to the latest theory of "foo" because the "bar" association thinks it's good, it wont help you get more customers. The ideals of Professionalism and Profession are a mismatch for the Startup world.
The creation process in Startups is new markets, products and services. Not old ones. In fact, the best are trying to displace the old entirely. Put them out of business and make them extinct. It's messy, full of unexpected stops and starts. Not the calm, orderly and mastered process with known results as the ideals of Professionalism enshrine.
Professionalism has its place where the benefit of improvement has to be weighed with the risk of damage to the old and existing. An insurance policy against risk but a barrier to innovation.
"... Living only on take-out and caffeine. Working in a [small] living room. Crazy, stupid, unprofessional behavior. Wearing nothing but shorts and ripped t-shirts ..."
I love this quote. It neatly sums up the informality of the startup process and something people from more structured backgrounds have trouble grokking. At least it's another excuse get around in shorts + t-shirt, think and code up ideas rather than waste money on clothes.