The valley that siliconized the world

When people outside of Silicon Valley ask me to describe it, I simply reply that I cannot. I tell them they have to be here to experience it, as words do not suffice.

Everything is different in Silicon Valley.  Talent, competency, enthusiasm, thought process, and hard work are only few that are distinctive here.  Even the language differs. Not that difficult to identify who’s from the valley amongst the crowd by just listening to the way they speak and the words they use. By the virtue of science, engineering and finance coming together to conceive prodigious technologies in a relatively limited geography, naturally special language for pointed communication gets created. Not quite a salmagundi of the old words, but a new idiolect as well as usage of the existing words in new context, beknown only to the locals.  That’s how the novel use of words like “space” and “bandwidth” were generated in the valley, then spread everywhere.

If a company wants to be taken seriously in technology and life sciences, it must have a footprint in the valley. These days, major global corporations headquartered elsewhere vie to create their innovation and venture centers here, all in pursuit of getting the next big thing and not missing or delaying incorporating the latest valued advancements created in the valley.

In March 1984, Francois Mitterrand, then president of France, visited the Stanford University campus and met with technology academic and industrialist leaders to learn about the burgeoning phenomenon of that time called Silicon Valley. Admitting begrudgingly that his country was behind, he said that only the government help could close the gap between his country and Silicon Valley.

That view was not necessarily because he was a socialist, but the reality of catching up with Silicon Valley, then and even now. Many metropolitan areas in the United States have gone through developing technology centers, with the state and local governmental assistance, in their quest to lure technology and life-science companies, for forming another Silicon Valley.  

One can debate the successes or failures of those efforts. However, judgment cannot be passed without first fully understanding this powerhouse wonder we call Silicon Valley.

What started emerging as Silicon Valley was actually not that large, stretching from Menlo Park to Santa Clara and Cupertino, bounded by the hills to the west and the Bay to the east, commonly known as the lower mid-Peninsula. But now, habitually the entire San Francisco Bay Area is considered Silicon Valley.

Peregrine tourists to the Bay Area certainly want to see the Golden Gate. They also equally fancy to see University Avenue in Palo Alto, Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, and the valley’s headquarters of mystically-famed technology giants. Locals tell those outsides of the valley the name of Steve Jobs’ favorite restaurant, and a coffeeshop he liked for his casual meetings, often in hopes of extracting awestruck from those befuddled visitors.      

Observing the much-talked about “culture” of Silicon Valley also classifies it in a separate category by itself, notwithstanding that some of its attributes amalgamate with the distinctive California ethos, two important features of which entail the ever-sense of optimism and that nothing is too difficult to prevail over it. Kind of like the local Half Moon Bay surfer mentality: there will always be good surf, and no surf cannot be ridden. Whether riding a huge Maverick surf or tackling the most intractable technology challenge, only that kind of cultural gusto in the valley, and California in general, can deliver success.

Out of that culture, two singularities rule the valley. First, failure is not looked at with the huge negative connotation as elsewhere, even to the point of fault. No one expects an entrepreneur to commit hara-kiri if the start-up fails. The second is that do-nothing is not an option. The negativism, obstructionism and the ever-slow pace of any decision making and development that prevail in corporate America, cannot be found in the valley. That’s why many corporate executives outside of the valley fail as entrepreneur once they start in the valley, and vice versa.

Reid Hoffman said, “Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location.” Right on the mark!

Jahan Alamzad is a management consultant and lives in San Carlos, California