In Origin Story, an episode of This American Life, Host Ira Glass talks to business professor Pino Audia and Fast Company magazine columnist Dan Heath about corporate creation myths, and why so many of them involve garages.
Along the way, it’s mentioned that the whole story about eBay being founded to trade Pez dispensers is a myth. Reporter David Rowan explains:
It was the warm, smalltown story of a corporate giant’s humble beginnings that enticed Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, even the fact-obsessed New Yorker. When Pam Wesley wanted to boost her collection of Pez sweet dispensers, her fiance, Pierre Omidyar, built a website for her to trade them. That website grew to be the huge online auction house eBay, one of the internet gold rush’s few success stories – even though, in the words of the company’s PR chief, Mary Lou Song, it began simply “as kind of a love token”.
It was a touching tale, recounted in endless profiles on both sides of the Atlantic, with only one flaw: it was a lie. As Song admits in a new book by Adam Cohen, The Perfect Store: Inside eBay, she invented the story five years ago to generate publicity for an otherwise dull tech company. “No one wants to hear about a 30-year-old genius who wanted to create a perfect market,” Song confesses. So she constructed what corporate PRs call a “creation myth”, and hoodwinked some of the world’s most respected reporters. Some of her victims are furious.
Andrew Warner
on 23 Jul 09These stories screw with the expectations of new entrepreneurs.
Tim
on 23 Jul 09Hmm … I wonder what 37signals “creation myth” story is.
Oh, got it – that they have never taken VC money. I bet that’s it. Yeah, that’s got to be it.
Nathan K
on 23 Jul 09I think this is true for many companies. As part of their executive summary, they should all have a section titled “Creation Myth” :-)
Mike
on 23 Jul 09This reminds me of Levi-Strauss’ idea of the zero insitution.
Between the opposition between the garage creation myth and the corporate overlord public perception lies some tacit agreement, a deeper myth about the company that both reinforce.
Joe Zydeco
on 24 Jul 09Shouldn’t some of those “most respected reporters” asked to see screenshots of the early eBay? Maybe talk to other PEZ collectors and ask them to talk about eBay’s influence on the price of Daffy Duck headed candy pushers?
EH
on 24 Jul 09I agree with Andrew, and would call something like this “Corporate Narcissism.” Heck, making stuff up after the fact? Maybe “Corporate BPD” is closer to the mark.
Eva
on 24 Jul 09Wow! I’d love the need of inventing a myth or a “this is unbelievable” story about my company’s origins!
Why? Because entrepreneurs who have a good and real story to tell usually need to keep their mouths for many sad reasons, while corporations go right the other way around…
And agree with Andrew also, good stories are great and give a glit of glamour, but at the end there’s always hard work.
Jim
on 24 Jul 09These things disappoint, but I don’t find it a huge surprise. This is the same reason I rarely bother to read biographies. Too much cooking the books to make the perfect story rather than a series of true, gritty events.
This gives a good backing to why not lying at the beginning of your company’s birth is a good idea, once everyone finds out the half-truths it really embarrasses everyone involved.
I agree Andrew, it’s very deceiving for new entrepreneurs. I hope Mixergy can continue to dispel the corporate PR myths of your interviewees! :)
Doug
on 24 Jul 09I find it sad that a euphemism like “myth” is used instead of what it really is: “lie”
Andrew Warner
on 25 Jul 09Thanks Jim.
The big one for me was when Owen Byrne came to Mixergy and dispelled the myths behind Digg. I really did believe that the site was built for $10/hr by some kid that Kevin outsourced his idea to.
Eliot Landrum
on 25 Jul 09That’s strange, because in The Perfect Store by Adam Cohen published in 2002 he explains the real “boring” story too. This isn’t exactly breaking news.
Alan Storm
on 25 Jul 09This story touches on a larger concern for anyone working in marketing or media, and for business in general. Lying remains one of the most effective ways to gain short term success. As the media and news continue to decentralize and as businesses concentrate on smaller markets, fewer people (that matter to the business) will be aware of the lies.
It’s going to be an odd 21st century.
Anonymous Coward
on 27 Jul 09http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/faculty/boa.aspx?id=62987
This discussion is closed.