Hacking Entry To Societies

By Larry Chiang

I parallel and pattern recognize that minority men are similar to women. Im a minority. It’s how I angled in to blog as a woman and chime in on female entrepreneurship issues at “Women 2.o”. Even though I wrote as a woman, I kept, “Larry Chiang”.

Here are some insights from my 10,000 hours of experience crashing things*. Many of my insights I’ve already blogged about at Women 2.o

*Crashed Stanford**
Crashed Kauffman
Crashed Congress**
Crashed LP Annual Investor Meetings**
Crashed Guardsman**

**became VIP. “Crasher to VIP” is a signature maneuver my mentor, Mark McCormack, taught me.

#1 Insight We Women Need to Know About “Good Ole Boys Club”.

They need us way more than we need them.

The key to any organization is growth from new members and new ideas. The onus is on the existing org to grow. If you don’t join, we don’t grow.

For example Congress. When the DCCC or NRCC asks women or minorities to run, minorities and women say no. Maybe it is the imposter syndrome (link: imposter syndrome article on women 2.0). For example, tech conferences. When you ask women and minorities, often they say no.

Here is the common sense that at first seems totally counterintuitive. There are few invites because of this dynamic…

#2 There are few invites doled out

Solution is you invite yourself. The reason I crash is that I believe deep down that I should be invited and wasn’t invited because they were too shy to invite me.

Yes, I treat the “Good Ole Boys Club” like the nerdy hot girl in high school that wanted to ask me to Sadie Hawkins. Sadie is a turn about dance where girls ask guys. You want to invite yourself at the first hint that they give you. This leads me to my next point

#3 Good Ole Boys Clubs are looking for self-starter, low maintenance members.

I’ve this theory that 20% of the members in a “Good Ole Boys Club” do 80% of the work.

Since, you can’t argue with the Pareto Principal, lets start pattern replicating me copy pasting my mentor: Mark McCormack.

Be useful.

For example, my mentor wanted to crash the Good Ole Boys Club of people known as pro athletes. So he did their legal work in a slightly genius way.

Bam! That’s how IMG started. Please pattern recognize this…

#4 Good Ole Boys Club needs beta roles filled by alpha people.

Minority men have the hardest time understanding this. By “this” I mean that people need to ebb and flow between alpha, beta, gamma and delta. A pattern I’ve recognized is that once a minority man has reached an alpha level, they think the transitive property of alpha, makes them always alpha. They think doing beta, gamma and delta tasks like making phone calls or getting coffee is beneath them and “losing dignity”. I’m alpha male here in Silicon Valley not because of my giant IQ. Everyone here is smart. It is because I’ll be the gamma male or delta male by busing tables of a party I crashed 20 engineers in to.

To continue with my previous example, my mentor went to Yale Law and was on the pro golf tour. Yet he served athletes. Yet he hid his prestigious academic background and didn’t get upset at doing menial tasks like “ambush meeting” a potential client by working the hotel lobby to “get home field advantage on the road”.

You’d think that after going to the best law school in America that you wouldn’t have to ambulance chase down a pro athlete to sign on the line which is dotted… But, counterintuitively, you DO!

#5 Good Ole Boys Club Seeks to Join New Parades.

Have you heard how VCs pattern recognize…”better to join a parade than to start one”. This observation is about risk.

Good Ole Boys Clubs are risk adverse. Very risk adverse.

For example, any staid old-guard organization wants credit for if it goes well and plausible deniability if it does not. This simple fact is true and was true every time I crashed anything.

*Crashed Stanford- Stanford Entrepreneur Week was getting stale until I produced events that had undergrads teaching other undergrads by speaking at Stanford E Week (Feb7-March 7. Hahaa, I made it a month)

Crashed Kauffman. Hosted and brand activated their brand and space. It is the Kauffman Center for VC Education and they’re awesome.

Crashed Congress – The blog post “how to get a law passed for 217.oo” didn’t make Congressman unhappy, it made them smile since everyone accuses them of being bought. My blog post spoke of methods to pass laws with nearly zero money

Crashed LP Annual Investor Meetings** I wrote a couple blog posts that were hiLarryAss and they were of the same mind (critical that they know how you think and who supports how you think). It made fundraising a li’l easier when the LPs are pitching you to come.

Crashed Guardsman. This is exactly a good ole boys club. I got in because I pitched them a fundraising concept that I already had done for a larger org, SF Magazine. Simultaneously, I anointed myself Mr Marina

I guess now is a good time for you to google my Women 2.0 article: “Dirty Self Promotion”

ENGR145’s Anchor Concept: Lemonade and Gua Gua Guacamole

It moves you to the right on the entrepreneur bell curve