While everyone this year was busy talking about how "The Social Network" makes Mark Zuckerberg look like the Benito Mussolini of the digital age, relatively little attention was paid to the depiction of his apparently hapless, doomed sidekick, Eduardo Saverin.If you haven't seen the movie, let me break it down for you; you know in mob movies, when the group of young street toughs are about to become made men but first they have to whack one of their own pals? Well, Saverin was that guy.
But at least one person was paying attention to how the movie made Saverin look; Saverin himself. And about a month later, he had something to say about it.
Now, the movie would have you believe that Zuckerberg was the brains of the outfit and Saverin was just the money, but as it turns out...well, Saverin really was just the money.
***
Plain = Saverin
Bold = Me
Imagine sitting in a movie theater, and when the lights dim and credits roll, you see your life unfold on the screen.
Wow, how would that go?
"I really wish they'd cast someone other than Daniel Radcliffe. And I really wish they'd put a more convincing wig on him. And I really wish I hadn't spent quite so much time playing Road Rash and watching 'Re-Animator', because this montage is going on forever."
As a co-founder of Facebook, I have wondered how Hollywood would depict its creation and development on the big screen. Would it be accurate? Would it showcase our failures, as well as our successes?
Okay, if that's really what you were worried about, then you obviously don't know that much about how movies happen. What you should have been worried about is whether the producer would insist on rewriting your character as a cartoon squirrel who fights crime, farts fire, and is voiced by Jack Black.
What I gleaned from viewing “The Social Network” was bigger and more important than whether the scenes and details included in the script were accurate.
Oh man, is he going to start talking about how this helped him find Jesus? Because that always makes me uncomfortable.
The true takeaway for me was that entrepreneurship and creativity, however complicated, difficult or tortured to execute, are perhaps the most important drivers of business today and the growth of our economy.
Wait, what?
Can we repeat that?
The true takeaway for me was that entrepreneurship and creativity, however complicated, difficult or tortured to execute, are perhaps the most important drivers of business today and the growth of our economy.
Huh. Somehow I expected it would become less stupid the second time. Not sure how. Magic, maybe?
Did Saverin even watch this movie? Saying that "The Social Network" is about the triumph of American entrepreneurship is like saying that "Rocky" is about Apollo Creed's successful title defense.
[ ...]Mark Zuckerberg successfully developed an entirely new world for daily interactions. Today, the Facebook platform brings a social layer to many of the ordinary actions we conduct online everyday.
...fuck, see, I can't make any jokes about Facebook, because I am on Facebook right now. Saverin, you magnificent bastard, you've trapped me in your clever wizard's puzzle!
But, unlike so many things in life, there are no boundaries as to who can be an entrepreneur. You can be a college student. True innovation is blind. As the web increasingly democratizes innovation and costs decrease, anyone can showcase a product. Just look at Facebook or YouTube.
I do, constantly. Sometimes I have dreams where I wake up and find the computer on, and when I try to turn it off these black snaky cables come out and plug into my head and force me to watch, like in that Pearl Jam video. At least, I'm pretty sure it's a dream. Anyway, what were we talking about?
In the digital world, the dependency on a large checkbook to start a business is diminishing.
Wait, I've heard this line somewhere before. It was from this AmeriQuest guy. He was trying to sell me an adjustable rate mortgage...
Instead, what has become increasingly more important is the help from others — the intellectual capital and know-how to succeed.
This was clearly cribbed straight from some freshman business major's last-minute term paper. And, now that its got Saverin's name on it, it will be cribbed directly into every freshman business major's last-minute term paper, like an ouroboros of bullshit.
Entrepreneurship involves mistakes and failures. But ultimately, if you have that intellectual capital and intimate understanding behind your project, you have a chance to succeed.
So, I think it's safe to say at this point that he didn't actually watch the movie. And might not remember his own life.
Whether the movie corresponds to his life I couldn’t say, because apparently he thinks we’re more interested in hearing about “know-how” and “intellectual capital” and other flaccid stock phrases that make me feel like an 18-wheeler was repeatedly running over my foot.
Intellectual capital, and not just monetary capital, will spawn the next great product or idea. Entrepreneurs, especially in the technology sector, will create things tomorrow that we can barely imagine today. They will struggle. They will fight. Many will fail. Others will thrive.
Some will die in hot pursuit in fiery auto crashes, some will die in hot pursuit while shifting through my ashes, some will fall in love with life and drink it from a fountain that was pouring like an avalanche and-
What? Oh, sorry, I got distracted listening to "Pepper" and, well, it's just a good song.
What we must be most vigilant about is maintaining an economic system that continues to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity. If we want our country to truly succeed in the 21st century, we will need the public and private sectors to also think in creative ways to encourage and further facilitate the creation of new companies.
Give me a second, I'm just going to gear up this jackhammer and see how deep I have to dig to find a genuinely unique, substantive idea anywhere in this paragraph.
Wow, straight through and into the table! It was like dropping a bowling ball on a soufflé.
This is not just an American issue, but a global one. As someone who was born in Brazil, grew up in Miami, and educated in Boston, I have seen first-hand that the challenge of creating new businesses is a global opportunity.
Wait a second; Miami, Boston, and...Brazil. Huh. Okay Ed, you want to play a game? It's called: "One of these things is not like the other ones."
Really, does he think that the general population of Brazil are all just giddy about the many business opportunities facing them, does he think that's the general common association with that country? Don't get me wrong, I know there are rich and successful people in Brazil. They're the ones who step over the hordes of poor people packed into the alleys like sardines. Exactly how long were you at Harvard, Mr. Saverin?
Entrepreneurship must be encouraged by everyone around the world. Working towards a common goal of creating new companies should be an aspiration for everyone, no matter what their political stripes or leanings may be, or where they live. Entrepreneurship is not limited to just our borders.
It’s not? Well damn. Can we at least still be the global nexus for egomania?
In the digital world, borders are permeable.
Just ask Julian Assange.
While watching the “Hollywood version” of one’s college life is both humbling and entertaining, I hope that this film inspires countless others to create and take that leap to start a new business.
The same way that "Jaws" inspired countless people to move to idyllic seaside villages and frolic in the waters without care in the world. Or so I imagine.
***
Okay, what the hell happened there? Saverin declined to comment on the film, which, frankly, is the only reason most people know his name, and instead he just delivered some bland, boilerplate corporate non-speak, the kind of uninspired mush that makes it sound like he's hocking Amway or shares in some late 90s dot-com scheme.
One commentator speculated that Ed here wanted to take the high road and neither condemn nor praise the movie or the events it was based on but instead just use the opportunity to establish a public image for himself. And he did. Sadly, the image he chose was that of a cheap salesman with nothing to say.
The sad thing is, I really wanted to know what he had to say. If any of the other backbiting rich kids wrapped up in those lawsuits had made a public statement after the movie, I wouldn't have given a possum's armpit about it, but my ears perked up a little at the mention of Saverin's name. Zuckerberg is a public figure, but Saverin is more of a cipher, and I was genuinely curious about him.
Maybe Saverin has some profound or insightful thoughts about the movie, the book, his life, business, or, well, anything really. If so, I wish he wouldn’t keep them such a secret.
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