I was chatting with someone recently, and one of our mutual connections came up — an LA-based businessperson who recently had a big financial exit. I asked if he was still in touch with that person.
He said not really, because “he’s in a different echelon now and hard to reach.” Even worse, he said this is a bit of an LA thing: there’s such a strong desire for upward mobility that once someone “makes it,” they typically start acting like they’ve outgrown their old circle and only want to hang out with people on the next social rung. Like everyone is playing some sort of social ladder game.
I don’t want to generalize – but if this was true, I think that’s super messed up. Coming from Silicon Valley, it’s a culture shock too.
Are people in Silicon Valley saints? No. Is there an invisible social hierarchy there? Of course. You and I are probably not grabbing lunch with Jensen Huang on a random Monday 🙂
But I’ve seen so many ultra-successful people spend time with up-and-comers, not to try to look good but because they’re not jerks. If someone in Silicon Valley starts acting like they’re in a different league just because they made some money, they literally get laughed at.
Again I don’t think it’s because people in Silicon Valley are somehow better but because they’ve seen the movie before. In the Bay Area, you meet so many unassuming, down-to-earth people who turn out to be early Google employees or unicorn founders. And they have a Stanford PhD too.
Whatever the reason may be, the result is the same: in Silicon Valley, for the most part, people don’t pull d*ck moves like “I’m too good to hang out with you because I’m rich now.” People just don’t do that s*it. This is one of the things people in other parts of the world can learn from Silicon Valley.