by Carolyn Leighton-Tal (carolyn@witi.com)
Founder and Chairwoman
WITI
I recently attended an event in the Silicon Valley co-hosted by WITI. I was dismayed to see an attitude of arrogance towards many of the WITI women who were present.
I happened to be standing next to one of the most successful and remarkable WITI women attending when she asked a representative from a company for a business card as he walked by. She apologized for having run out of her own business cards, to which he replied, "That's ok, I'm not interested anyway."
I was doubly annoyed having invested in that company's stock, as well as having bought several of their products.
A few minutes before that incident, I asked a representative of another company as he walked by me for a business card, and he pompously responded, "I am normally surrounded and stalked after I announce who I am." What a turn-off!
Now, I had been hearing some pretty dreadful stories over the past several months about growing arrogance permeating the high-tech industry, but had not taken those comments very seriously until I found myself in the midst of a combination of vc, dot.com and high-tech people and saw, firsthand, several examples of this attitude.
From a purely business standpoint, I find it astonishing that any representative of any company would tender the illusion that he or she is serving his/her company and their future well by indulging in such arrogance and self-absorption.
This is even more intriguing at a time when companies are spending considerable resources trying to understand how to attract more women to their company and sell more products and services to women.
I don't care who they are (or who they think they are), what they have done, or how smart they are, there is absolutely no excuse for such an attitude - of thinking that one is smarter or better than anyone else.
When are these people going to get that being smart is a gift and being kind is a choice? Is it a thought that hasn't occurred to them or do they just not get it?
