Is Mark Zuckerberg Lying?

Introduction

Andrew: “We need belief. Why do we need belief? Because if we do not believe in our pitch other people will not.

“We as an audience are naturally super, uber, skeptical about anything anyone says to us when we do not know that person.  We start out from a high level of skepticism, therefore any signal when we’re pitching sent out to other people suggesting that we don’t believe in what we’re talking about means that our audience keep an arm’s length approach.

“They maintain analytical and logical approach which means they can never relax and get into the narrative that we’re trying to sell them. In other words; they’re super logical, super analytical, super cold and they don’t get and buy into us during the pitch. Doesn’t mean you will fail when you’re pitching but it’s so much easier if our audience believes in us.

“Question is; Mark Zuckerberg had to persuade a bunch of senators that he was the right man to lead Facebook in the future, billions riding on this right Matt, did Mark come across as a person that was believable?

Matt: “I think when you say believable I think you’re talking about belief and about passion. I think naturally Mark in his delivery is very monotone and it gives him an incongruence between the words that are coming out of his mouth, his body language and his tone, they just don’t match.

Andrew: “So you were talking to me earlier about this about he says how much he is loving his passion for Facebook right?

Passion

Matt: “Okay Facebook is his only real passion and you know that from the fact that that he was offered a hundred million from an investor years ago and he said no; I want turn this into something cool. There was a lifechanging amount of money that he would never have to work again you know here he is saying no, I want to build this. Yet when he talks about the mission of Facebook in the Senate hearing there’s none of that passion there.

Matt “And had you not known him you wouldn’t have believed that he could have built what he’s actually built.

Andrew: “Here’s an example of what Matt’s talking about.

Mark Zuckerberg Video

Mark Zuckerberg: “Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company. For most of our existence we focused on all the good that connecting people can do and as Facebook has grown, people everywhere have gotten a powerful new tool for staying connected to the people they love, for making their voices heard and for building communities and businesses. Just recently we’ve seen the ‘me too’ movement and the march for our lives organized at least in part on Facebook. After hurricane Harvey people came together to raise more than million dollars for relief and more than 70 million small businesses use Facebook to create jobs and grow.

Coached

Matt: “We can see he has been coached within an inch of his life for this this inquiry. He had so much running on it to the point where when you actually watch it on the Internet it shows the share price going up and down based on like the worm on the on a political debate. Because he had so much riding on it and because this looked the best he could do.

Who To Pitch?

Matt: “You do question as to had he had he not been the CEO of Facebook whether he would have been the best person to actually go in front of the Senate. This is a double-edged sword with being the face of a company in that had he not turned up to the Senate hearing he would have been seen as evading questioning. Yet out of the thousand people that actually work for Facebook he’s not in the top eleven who you would actually put in front of the Senate hearing.

Matt: “So we’re saying then that perhaps we need to be selective about the people that we get to go out in front and pitch our business. Often we see people come to us and are looking for pitching advise and sometimes looking for pitching advice and sometimes the best people have an incredible passion but don’t convey that in a pitch. To a certain extent you can teach it but for some people this just doesn’t come naturally and so when you are pitching you need to decide as to who’s actually going to front; whether the founder is in fact the best person to actually go forward.

Andrew: “And really what we’re talking about here, what I’ve read into this is that it’s about people showing their expression. They don’t just say that they love what they’re doing, they actually emotionally display that .

“It depends culturally where you come from. I’m English or your Australian right so you’re a bit wilder with your moves and stuff like that but us British are quite controlled. Nonetheless, if we don’t show any emotion and we speak monotone just like this and we do not move our heads or anything else or even our eyes we don’t even blink then perhaps I can sound really will have a boring and not passionate at all.

Matt: “Yeah but the problem that you actually have in effect is your natural stance. Then you risk the chance of actually being inauthentic which is even worse actually the conversation that you have where you deliver it in a monotone voice.

Prejudice

Andrew: “So we’re quite prejudice here then. We have our preconceived ideas about what we think someone should look like and be like, particularlyif it’s the first time we’re seeing that person. If I knew you from years ago and I knew you were an individual who just didn’t show any kind of level of passion when I saw you and you said you’re passionate about something, I could believe you. But first time we want to see that individual displaying a level an expression about how much they care for that idea right?

Matt: “It saddens me sometimes when I see people that come to us that that have a fantastic idea yet are deadpan in their delivery. I’ve seen pitches where with they’ve gone out and got funding and the business model behind it is a bit ropey but their delivery is first class because they show their passion.

Conclusion: Is Zuckerberg Believable?

Andrew: “So Matt question was he believable? I believe, that he believes in what he was saying but, did he come across to the rest of the Senators as an individual that was believable? As a CEO of a global super influential company, yay or nay?

Matt: “I think he was authentic, which is far more important than being overly passionate. Being himself, belief trumps exuberance.  Okay. I think he was very believable.

Andrew: “Okay Mark, you were believable!