What I learned about startups from: Defending Miley Cyrus
Startup leadership lessons from a pop star
You can learn a lot from Miley Cyrus. Really. For today’s start up article, I’d like to bust some Miley Myths. My guess is that if you follow her leadership examples, your startup will have a much better chance of success.
First let me say that most of what I know about Miley comes from Wikipedia, and the only song of hers I know is Wrecking Ball. So I guess I’m not really a fan, which is appropriate cause at my age it would be just plain creepy.
Myth: The song Wrecking Ball sucks.
Since I brought it up, let’s start with this one. As full disclosure, my musical tastes are eclectic and tend to be pretty unsophisticated. My iTunes selections range from Arcade Fire to Harry Belefonte.
I like songs that either have great poetry (Bon Iver’s Holocene) or that closely capture some personal feeling (Billy Joel’s And So it Goes). Wrecking Ball falls in the latter category. Breaking up sucks and I’ve often fretted over what I could have done differently to avoid it.
and a Beatle
Wrecking Ball does a good job of capturing that helpless feeling. The songs lyrics won’t win a Wallace Stevens Award but they are certainly deeper than say the Beatles’ I want to Hold Your Hand written when John and Paul were in their early 20s.
Making blanket statements is lazy.
Believing them is stupid.
If you can get past any prejudice that you might have about Cyrus or if you didn’t know the song was hers, you might agree. To like it or not isn’t really the point. Making blanket statements about anything is lazy (all politicians are crooks, everything Steve Jobs did was genius, all Miley Cyrus songs suck). Believing them is stupid.
Startup Lesson Learned:
- Not everyone is going to believe in you or your ideas. But you have to.
- Don’t focus on the naysayers. They have their own hangups and you can’t please everyone. That doesn’t mean you can ignore customer/user feedback. But the customer is NOT always right. Or better said, not every customer is for you.
- Focus on the customers who love your product.Find out what it is they love and improve on that.
Myth: Miley Cyrus only got her start because her dad was Billy Ray.
My dad’s a gynecologist but that doesn’t mean you can trust me with a tuneup for your lady parts.
According to the lords of Wikipedia, Cyrus sent an audition tape to LA like millions of other kids do each year. She was rejected because she was too small and young for the role on Hannah Montana. She got a second chance because of her persistence and singing and dancing abilities.
“It’s ok—my dad’s a gynecologist”
Although neither you or I had a hand in casting, let’s make an educated guess that the fact that Billy Ray was her father gave her a leg up in the audition process. But if she couldn’t actually do the job, she wouldn’t have gotten it.
Startup Lesson Learned:
- If you have connections work them. If a recommendation gets you an appointment on Sand Hill road that’s great.
- Be prepared. But if you haven’t perfected your pitch and built a great team, you’re going to walk away empty-handed.
Myth: Miley Cyrus only became successful because of the Disney marketing machine.
I have a 7 year old son so I’ve watched more than my share of the Disney Channel. Although I love a good adult reference in a movie like Toy Story, I like that Disney’s TV shows are written solely for the kids. As a parent you go bonkers watching them.
But few kids programs are runaway successes. However, “Hannah Montana premiered on March 24, 2006, to the largest audience for a Disney Channel program and quickly ranked among the highest-rated series on basic cable.” (Wikipedia)
Early on, Cyrus became huge in TV, music and consumer products. Of course, Disney’s mass marketing gave her the exposure to do so. The creators and writers on the show deserve a ton of credit. Her management team (she was just a teenager) probably made all the right decisions for her too.
is going to be huge!
A huge Disney Marketing budget does not
equal runaway success (think Lone Ranger)
But none of this would have been possible if Cyrus didn’t have the core talent and undeniable charisma to appeal to her audience.
Plus, don’t be naive enough to think that anything is marketable if you put enough Disney money behind it. The Lone Ranger’s Bruckheimer would agree with me.
Startup Lesson Learned:
- Get your core value proposition right. If it’s not exactly clear to you what the one feature your customers couldn’t live without, then it won’t be clear to them either. Work really hard on perfecting that.
- Molding shit into the shape of a dog won’t make it bark. No matter how much money you throw at a bad idea or a bad execution of a good idea, you won’t be successful. The best you will do is a short-lived bump in sales followed by a brand ruined with a bad reputation.
Myth: Miley Cyrus 15 minutes of fame are over.
Many people say Cyrus is on a crash course with disaster. They base this on her VMA twerking, horrible film reviews and over exposure.
No one can forecast the outcome of a life accurately.
Maybe she is, maybe she isn’t. Maybe she’s just trying to figure out what her life as an adult is going to mean to her. Maybe she’s having fun. Maybe she makes mistakes. Maybe she’ll learn from them, maybe she won’t. Maybe she’s taking acting lessons. Maybe she’ll get a great role and kill it. Maybe the only job she’ll be able to get in 5 years is as a spokesperson for a sketchy online college.
The fact is I don’t have any idea. And neither do you. No one can forecast the outcome of a life accurately.
But I can’t imagine what my life would have been like as a teenager and early 20 something with millions of people analyzing my every move. I can’t image doing it now. It’s hard enough trying to please the people that matter in my life.
Maybe it won’t last, but Cyrus has already sold hundreds of millions of dollars of products and has a world-brand with a value estimated at over $1 billion dollars. I know money isn’t everything…
Startup Lesson Learned:
- You can’t predict the future. Right now our startup is working on software that I think will change an industry and be used by millions of people. I like to think I’ve stacked the deck in our favor with research and expertise.But since we won’t launch until December, I really have no idea.
Myth: Miley Cyrus is a horrible role model
I know I’m going to get a lot of push-back on this one from my three dedicated readers. The reality is all role-models (except perhaps deity) have flaws.
hardly knew ya
- Barrak Obama smokes. Ronald Regan was originally a Democrat.
- Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.
- Martin Luther King had extramarital affairs.
- Albert Einstein cheated on his wife with his cousin and then married her.
- Miley Cyrus did a pole dance at the Teen Choice Awards.
Before I get hate comments, I’m not comparing Cyrus and her accomplishments to these people. I’m only pointing out that if you dig into anyone’s life, you’re going to find unflattering realities.
Role models, like all important topics should instigate conversations between parents and their kids
I would argue that the concept of “role model” is flawed. Because what we really mean is that we want to emulate only the good from the people we admire.
With my own kids, I’m a big proponent for dealing with reality and ignoring what we wish were true. The fact is kids role models are most likely people from pop culture (real and fictional).
I think Cyrus is a good example of a role model that can begin intelligent conversations between a parent and a daughter. They can discuss the things that they like about her and those they don’t. A parent has an opportunity to stress his or her family values in a context that a child or teenager can better understand.
I imagine conversations like, “We like her singing and dancing talents, but we don’t like the way she dresses in this picture because… Here’s a picture where we think she looks really pretty. We don’t like that she smokes pot. Here’s why we don’t smoke pot in our family. We like that she is determined to reach her goals. We like that she works hard, etc. etc.”
Startup Lesson Learned:
- You can learn something from anyone. Listen more and talk less.
- Accept your limitations. You’re not going to be good at everything and you’re going to make some horrible mistakes. No matter how bad they are, you’ll probably laugh about them someday.
Myth: Miley Cyrus has the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen.
This one is true. Have you watched that wrecking ball video? I hear she’s naked in it, but I didn’t notice cause I was blinded by the teeth.
