My first time going to a networking event consisting of entrepreneurs, angel investors, startup employees; it also may have been my last time. The event was called Startup TNT, a community in Canada on various cities across the country consisting of aspiring entrepreneurs, successful retired entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs turned angel investors, angel investors, startup employees. That night of approximately 3 hours on a weekday, I listened to various stage entrepreneurs to talk about their ventures, with the main star of the show being Brett Wilson. Brett Wilson is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and appeared on the show Dragon’s Den Canada investing in new Canadian entrepreneurs starting out. Naturally I went to the event because of Brett, and I had also seen a previous talk by him in university, and had read his book, Redefining success. If it weren’t for him and the dinner, the $25 admission fee would have been a total waste. Here I gather the thoughts I had about all the other people that I had met, well some for just a few seconds. I saw no reason to connect with any of them after the event.

This networking event featured the “genuine” opportunity to form partnerships, hire new employees, bring on an aspiring investor, and more. Everything that a business person could ask for in trying to expand their business. It turns out that at such events, like limited free pancakes on Canada Day or Independence Day in the US in exchange for lining up for hours on end in the heat, all the starved greedy opportunistic vultures come out in full flight, desperate to get something for nothing. The networking event was full of these greedy people types. I was astounded by it all. Everyone there was greedy, looked greedy, seemed desperate, and had a sense of wild opportunism in the eyes. And oddly, they to me did seem intelligent and had good if not exceptional work ethics. Except, they rated themselves far higher than they actually would be in reality, and seemed so foolish in tandem. It was like meeting a bunch of cunning foxes, except foolish.   

The event contained so many judgmental opportunistic people; for instance, the fact that I looked relatively young, and was indeed relatively young, made them assume that I was some kind of idiot. The conversations weren’t even conversations, as the people I talked to gave curt, cold short responses; robotic like. Not only the words, but the non-verbal cues and body language indicated that they thought I was some kind of loser, and the folks I talked to within maybe 10-20 seconds decidedly ended the conversation in a passive-aggressive manner and moved on. None of them asked me any questions, and later on in the evening, after I asked a question and got a short response, sometimes just one or two words, I intentionally went quiet and just stared at them. With some people, this went on for a few seconds, then the person sometimes would legitimately just walk away, saying nothing at all, asking no questions whatsoever. Wow, absolutely beyond rude. What’s worse was the emotion on the faces of the countless number of people that I had experimented going quiet with; the few seconds before walking away, it seemed as if they were extremely angry with me, immense frustration. If a few seconds of uncomfortable silence is all it takes to bring out rage, how’s that going to work in a business with countless number of seemingly insurmountable obstacles?

What happens if I happened to be a rich angel investor? What a loss that could have been. This was the classic case of those with no integrity; kicking down and kissing up. Treating me with absolutely no courtesy at all. What’s worse, with the highlight entrepreneur and investor at the event, Brett Wilson, those same people suddenly had the eyes light up bright and was speaking to him enthusiastically, a mere seconds after the cold behavior exhibited towards me. This was a complete 180-degree turn, beyond two faced. If a successful angel investor saw this, why on earth would they invest? If this is how they treat a stranger, imagine how they would treat an employee who made a mistake, or a difficult customer that tried to ask for more than what they ordered, or a customer who paid slowly, or a key investor asking for updates, or a vendor with crucial material purchases. How would this person be able to sustain long term relationships with any stakeholder, and by extension, sustain a profitable business, much less likely one that is worth an outside investor to consider parting money into? Successful investors would likely have good discernment and be able to see right through this fake behavior. In fact, just standing alone and observing a person for just a minute and seeing the interactions between them and others would already give enough confirmation not to invest in this kind of selfish inhumane behavior. If they will do it to others, they will do it to you. One day these types would end up screwing over any cofounders or investors along the way. Based on the successful entrepreneurs that I had met in person over a number of times to form an impression of, I can say wholeheartedly that not one of them I had met aside from Brett Wilson had the temperament, character, integrity, good listening, kindness or otherwise behavior in order to succeed on a long-term basis. In the short-term they may find some success, but with the insane ego, hubris, and pride, this would eventually beset the fall. And a swift and devastating fall at that.

There is a saying that a calm mind is a prerequisite to success. A mind that not just has peace of mind, but peace from mind, allows the person to much more likely make the correct decision, and to not let emotions take over the person during times of chaos and stress. Those faces demeanours and overall disposition that I saw and felt, seemed exactly the opposite of that. It was even worse than the average person day to day, who effectively exudes low level stress, anxiety, and hostility. However, these entrepreneurs, perhaps wannabe entrepreneurs, seemed to be on the verge of blowing up, like a dormant volcano ready to explode. Look at the very best, even in times of stress, they seem quite calm, like a relaxed sailor facing a large wave coming. Often times, a strong character, the correct temperament is a prerequisite to success. False circle jerk misplaced confidence from confirmation bias of yes men friends and colleagues in possession of dark triad traits of narcissism, psychopathy, sociopathy, and manipulative Machiavelli is not enough to succeed in the short term, and certainly unlikely in the long term. The oddest feeling that I still cannot shake off is how foolish some seemed, and many straight up stupid. Akin to the person who gets As in schools, but then Fs in life. The lack of self awareness was frightening to see, particularly in adults who were in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Some of the folks I talked to, immediately after, I would judgingly think, wow, this guy seems completely stupid like a deer in the headlights. What on earth is he thinking in trying to do something as difficult as entrepreneurship, while having a long list of failures and already being well past the young ages and in the 2^nd half of life, with no real success or indicators of success anywhere to be seen?

Of the conversations that actually had any duration and substance to it, I noticed a disturbing trend of entrepreneurs who were mercenaries in it for the money, rather than missionaries in it for the purposeful goal. When I asked them about what they were doing and why they were doing, the answers, although containing reasonable detail, felt very monotone. However, when I asked financial questions about how much money they were making, revenue projections, previous capital raises, future expected capital raises, they became very excited in tone. This showed to me that they weren’t really worried about the cause but more so the money. It’s like someone running a charity who is more excited to campaign and raise money than the actual mission of the charity. In recent years we have seen entrepreneurs literally take the money and run from angel investors if the money became large enough to do so. These types offered that subtle possibility that I couldn’t help but notice as a potential red flag.

Brett Wilson talked extensively on stage, given the fact that he was the main guest of the night, He revealed many things on stage about his life that might give us a window into his values. Health wise, he had clinically diagnosed depression, and was taking various prescribed medication, not just for depression but for a host of other health issues, words that I had never even heard of and cannot even remember. This is astounding. He also had spoken of strained relationships, post divorce life, a girlfriend he was seeing that had also ended badly, and difficulty in being able to “Reconnect” with his children. It’s shocking to me that someone so wealthy would need to reconnect with his children, when it would be clear that he had more than enough time to do so. When he was giving his talk, he spoke quite glowingly of his successful angel investments on Dragon’s Den, despite the fact that his net worth is an estimated $300 million; those investments, even if they continued to be successful, would not provide a significant change in his net worth. And even if they did, it would be unlikely that they would be able to dramatically alter his lifestyle. So why the pride and excitement around them? I would think between someone who is already rich vs the average joe, if someone made an investment that returned millions of dollars, the emotional affect should be much greater towards the average person. His excitement when speaking of those angel investments on Dragon’s Den seemed as if his net worth was that of the average person. This seemed bizarre to me, as though his first and greatest love (and perhaps only love) was money. Given that his physical health, emotional health, relationships seemed to be in a dumpster despite the ample amount of time he had on his hands, it seemed to me his time and energy continued to be devoted to money rather than other far more important qualities of health and relationships. When the audience members had the chance to ask questions, his answers often seemed to divert from the original question. They would go on effectively unhinged rants that had no relation to the original question. For instance, inquiries about the general business health, environment and opportunity in Canada and the western prairie provinces often turned into attacks on various levels of government and particular policies that attempted to hurt the business environment. Even if this is true, the questions made no mention of politics. When audience members pressed further on business related questions, his answers would continue to divert towards politics. Sometimes, he even went as far to naming other individuals in a negative manner, openly bashing and criticizing them. Those individuals as he recalled, were not even in the audience. It seemed sad to me that someone who had accomplished all that, and had that much time, couldn’t or didn’t have enough high-quality positive relationships to be able to erase the negative ones. Being able to recall such individuals and politics in such a clear manner showed what a negative place his mind was in, given the depression diagnosis.

Conclusion

I always like to see what people are like and the results they get from whatever activities, values, behaviors and beliefs they have. If the results are positive, good, sustainable, and compound over time, that is something that I am interested in. For instance, I play squash regularly due to some of the members of the community that I play in being in their 60s and yet actually being better players than I am, which is outrageous considering the age. Seeing those entrepreneurs’ demeanour, values or likely lack of perceived values, bad behavior, antisocial personalities, desperation, anxiety, stress, foolishness, and likely sacrificed importance in other areas, gave me chills. I wonder if entrepreneurs, or making money is even worth it. The bible in Matthew 16:26 asks, what does it benefit a person to gain the entire world but lose his own soul? At least in Brett Wilson’s case, he did gain the functioning equivalent of the whole world in $300m in net worth. Imagine being one of the many others in the crowd, in their 50s but looking as if they are in their 70s, still trying to desperately achieve financial success, sacrificing their own soul and everything else, and yet not even ending up with any portion of the world, let alone the whole world. Seems like a really bad decision in hindsight.

Networking events such as these are likely to attract certain types of people, so this event is not indicative of all entrepreneurs in the world. I’ve met entrepreneurs who have amazing health, values, character, relationships, and businesses. But those entrepreneurs seemed to be doing everything wrong, not only just business.

Disclaimer

This is not Financial Advice. This article is meant only for educational and perhaps entertainment purposes.