History of the Silicon Valley Asshole’s society
Mike Butcher rose to Sam Sethi’s defense when I called him an asshole.
Sam himself also took offense by me calling him that - so I thought I’d clarify a bit.
Business is tough. It takes a tough cookie to succeed in this environment. Various people use various techniques to survive. One is to be an asshole. This attitude takes on several permutations and nuances - but it’s underlying notion is that you don’t have to be everyone’s favorite person and that by sticking out in a crowd - that’s a good thing.
I certainly use this technique allot and I’ve seen Sam Sethi use it - as well.
So when I called Sam, an asshole, it was a back handed swipe/complement.
Let me use this opportunity to tell a story.
Back in the day, Stewart Alsop, Dave Winer and myself used to hang out allot and kibbitz on the industry. So we decided to start a secret organization called “The Silicon Valley Asshole’s Society” - just so we could say we had our own secret organization.
We had all sorts of bylaws like “nobody was allowed in the organization with a net vlaue of over $70M - which knocked out Bill Gates, Mitch Kapor and Steve Jobs - at the time. You see this was before the billionaire boys club era.
So we have our first meeting/party and Jean Louis-Gassee - another original founder - comes with a case of Bordeuax and I come with a big bag of succulent, juice, skunk. So we have this great party and after I’m informed that I’m getting kicked OUT of the organization I helped found.
It seems that our ‘monkey climbing up the pole and see his ass’ - asshole Jean-Louis - doesn’t wanna be associated with me.
So to that - I raise my nose in digust and say “Fuck you - asshole”.
UPDATE: My dear old friend, Bobby Orbach has confirmed the existence of the SVAS - and noted that he, Marl Eppley and Vadim - were also founders fathers. And Bobby distinctly remembers me being booted out - even though I was the founding CHAIRMAN.
December 19th, 2006 at 8:13 am
hey Marc,
dont forget Mark Eppley and myself were also founders of the SVAS..
yup I remeber when you got virtually booted…it was really funny, cuz you were the first chaiman of the asshole society…
those were the good times
bobby
December 19th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
BTW, I ran into Mitch Kapor at some conference, with Stewart and Guy, and he asked me about the SVAS and asked if he could join.
I got to deliver the news. “Yes you can join, but you’d have to divest.” I felt sorry for Mitch, but rules are rules.
December 19th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Hi Marc,
It’s funny - the photo the SFGate used is the one I took of you in 2005 and put in flickr under an “All Rights Reserved” license - only because it was the default. I don’t mind so much using the photo,but the link back to me doesn’t work! Should publishers like sfgate.com understand copyright?
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2006/12/is_some_big_old.html
December 20th, 2006 at 1:56 am
[…] Dave further elaborates on one of our only rules at the SVAS: BTW, I ran into Mitch Kapor at some conference, with Stewart and Guy, and he asked me about the SVAS and asked if he could join. I got to deliver the news. “Yes you can join, but you’d have to divest.” I felt sorry for Mitch, but rules are rules. […]
December 20th, 2006 at 4:18 am
Based on the people listed, the SVAS must have been a later offshoot of the Asshole’s Society that I remember. That contained me, Dave and Dick Brass. We appointed Jerry Pournelle as the honorary President for life, although we didn’t tell him that. I think Cary Lu was also an honorary member as a joke, because he was working with Dick, and was actually an anti-asshole. I sure miss him. This must have been about the time of Fall Comdex 1988, since Dick and I were hanging out a lot then, and we tried to engineer an LBO of Ashton-Tate around the same time. That would probably make it before Vadim’s time, since he had just entered the industry the year before. From what I remember, you were just a young guy on the way up at that point, so I would have remembered if you were Chariman, which I don’t. Putting it all together, I’d say the SVAS was definitely a later, derivative group. I do, however, remember the exclusionary rules, since none of us had cash-out type money at that time. What date would you apply to the SVAS? I know memories are a little hazy for all of us from then, due to the traditional activities when the group was in session.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Hey, all my old buddies who are now old farts like me! Dave and I are the real co-founders of the Silicon Valley Asshole Society (note that there is no possessive). We are the Founding Assholes! I think we had had quite a lot to drink and maybe ingest and were really feeling our oats; sitting in Dave’s first real house oin Hermosa Way in Menlo Park. We always thought it was a real test of personality if you could call yourself an asshole and be cool with that. Adam, Dick, Marc, Mark, Bobby all came later, during “membership development activities”. Somehow the organization just didn’t scale, so it kind of petered out (if you know what I mean).
December 21st, 2006 at 4:54 pm
[…] The King original Asshole Stewart Alsop showed up - leaving some comments on my SVAS post. Turns out he did raise some money and has anew fund with Gilman Louie called Alsop Louie. […]