by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
Well, Andy Warhol got that wrong, didn’t he - no one these days has that long an attention span! But he did come very close and with the advent of the internet, ‘fame’ has become a real possibility for all of us. And so we dream of joining the Creative Economy, getting a zillion ‘hits’ overnight and earning a $million, all before our first pot of coffee in the morning. That is not only Fame, but serious Power as you then start to influence others…
It is fitting that we discuss ‘Power’ further after last weekend’s saunter into the dark world of AI and the power of storytelling (here). This week we look at the Power of the Creative Economy and Networks, that also work via the power of storytelling, the story that yes, we too can get ‘a zillion ‘hits’, or million ‘likes’ (who doesn’t want to be the cool kid on the block) and so it sucks us in further…
What we are interested in is the actual business behind the hype of Social Media and the Creative Economy, how this business drives us and influences us. How can we use that information to grow our business? Everyone seems to be doing it, so it must be easy, and if so, surely we should push more of our membership into creating something on the side, not just having a blog post on their website, but perhaps getting professional with it…
And so like Alice in Wonderland, we drank from the bottle and entered the Rabbit Hole…
What a universe we discovered, of colour, of sound, of action, of movement, of everything! What glamour and incredible fame, pulling a seemingly unlimited amounts of real (and wanna-be) artists, writers, musicians, designers into its warm embrace.
Doug Shapiro (a guru in such things) has said that the danger of the internet is that in an apparent contradiction, the internet both fragments and concentrates attention (here). Fragments because it is just soooo vast, as we are seeing now from the incredible scale of Data Centres in various countries that hold all the information on the internet (and all those photos we send each other on Whatsapp). So huge that: “[a] large data center…can gobble up anywhere between 1 million and 5 million gallons of water a day — as much as a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.” (here)
But it also concentrates, the internet feeding our interest by sending us more and then more information based around our interests (‘feedback loops’), then much like AI as we explained last weekend (here), focuses in deeper, taking us to the extremes. Ever wondered why the world is ever more polarised? It is because we have been drawn there by the internet algorithms that are just feeding us what we want to confirm and so further our biases.
A seriously scary world we have invented!
But herein lies the problem, more choice yet more focus, which results in a very long tail of people who are just not making any money. There is a tiny minority that is earning huge bucks in the creator economy, but then, as with the infamous 1% of rich people who ‘own the world’ that we often hear about, outside of that magic circle of money and influence, there is a huge drop.
“The richest 1% own almost half of the world’s wealth, while the poorest half of the world own just 0.75%…[and] 81 billionaires have more wealth than 50% of the world combined.” Oxfam (here)
This could have been referring to the creator economy. It is incredibly difficult to break into that money making area. We imagine we are in a world of ‘Normal Distribution’ (the Bell shaped curve chart we learnt at school), where there are tails at each end and a massive group in the middle where the bulk of the distribution or money is made, but sadly we are deluded. We are in fact sitting in a ‘Power Law Distribution’ where as with the 1%, a very small number gobble up everything, leaving very little for the masses which peter-out over a long diminishing tail as we show in our title picture this weekend.
This is nothing new as Social Media and from that the Creator Economy follows the general notion of popularity. The book ‘Networks, Crowds and Markets’ (here - see Chapter 18) reminds us: “Popularity is a phenomenon characterized by extreme imbalances: while almost everyone goes through life known only to people in their immediate social circles, a few people achieve wider visibility, and a very, very few attain global name recognition.”
This is not a ‘Normal Distribution’.
Not good news for anyone (such as ourselves) watching the tsunami of AI heading towards our feminine shores. Popularity such as (oh, let’s pluck something random from the air…er…), is it more popular to invest in women or men? Surely a normal distribution, ‘women’ should have just as much chance as ‘men’ in being popular to investors, of being ‘liked’, of being funded, as it is the business that should be the driver of such decisions - but this is where we are going wrong. With only 2% of funding going to women owned and led businesses in Africa as here - that’s a ‘Power Law Distribution’, yet again showing that anyone thinking as the WEF say, that it will take 132 years to close the Gender Gap (here), or 286 years “…if the current rate of progress continues”, according to the UN Women and UN DESA (here), is not only as we stated last weekend, mis-understanding the power of multiples, but also not recognising that popularity or ‘who I support’, ‘who I like’, ‘who I fund’, follows the ‘Power Law Distribution’, and that is incredibly tough for those not in the 1%… Indeed one could go so far as to say Andy Warhol was wrong, there is even less chance these days of everyone finding the 15 minutes (or even seconds) of fame, that is only possible for those who know the secret of networks.
Networks “…tend to amplify hits because people often base their choices on what they see other people do…why? For two reasons: 1) it is often rational to assume that other people’s choices contain valuable information; and 2) people care what others think of them.
These are two distinct phenomena, what social scientists call “information cascades” and “reputational cascades.” (here)
It is no surprise then that as we showed last weekend (here) AI will simply continue to amplify any inbuilt bias within the ‘valuable information’ it is shown. For any who are still unsure about this, we return to our Cornell University book (here - Chapter 18 still), where the authors discuss what they call the ‘rich-get-richer dynamics’: “…essentially, the more well-known someone is, the more likely you are to hear their name come up in conversation, and hence the more likely you are to end up knowing about them as well…”.
Our new BFF, Doug Shapiro explains: “When search and opportunity costs are low, you may choose to figure it out yourself. When they are high and you can see what other people have done, it is reasonable to presume that (collectively) other people have more information than you do and base your decisions on theirs. When many people do this successively, it results in…information cascade...sometimes called cumulative advantage, preferential attachment or the ‘rich-get-richer effect’.”
So we can’t blame AI for simply following what its masters have been doing for centuries! THIS is why we say that AI will take the 2% vs 98% of finance (women vs men founders) and exponentially amplify the gap further (yes, it’s possible).
We started by looking at the creator industry and finished by looking once again at AI and finance - but the facts remain the same, it is just as impossible to become a massive hit earning $zillions, as it is for a woman to raise finance, unless and until, you create and build your own large homogenous network, one that supports and brings in others because they can see the value (even if it is just confirmation bias via ‘information’ and ‘reputational' cascades).
The Lionesses of Africa is one such homogenous network, with numbers increasing by over 30,000 inspirational African Women Entrepreneurs each month, but it is rare to find such a network on your doorstep (and yes, we are still only scratching the surface), but this is your network, you must use it - where else would you find 1.7 million like-minded individuals with the power to support you. You cannot sit back and wait for the spotlight of fame to turn to you - there is no such thing as ‘your turn’, you have to fight for it. Outside of the Lionesses of Africa, look to your connections, list them in order of importance, then contact them. Do not be shy, do not second guess their reactions. Start by simply bringing them up to date with your business, reconnect and then ask their advice, you’ll be amazed at just how helpful people are if you ask them politely, this is the beginnings of your network, the core, the nucleus.
We recently advised a Lioness on her funding journey and noticed that she knew the great Tony Elumelu (we are huge fans of his work). The conversation went as follows:
Us: “How do you know the great man?”
Lioness: “Oh, I did quite well in one of his competitions a few years back.” (Lionesses, modest to a fault)
Us: “Have you contacted him or his team to ask for advice?”
Lioness: “Er, no, I didn’t want to presume…”.
This is where we lose. The power of a network is driven by how you use it until it starts to gather a momentum of its own (and even then we cannot sit back, it needs constant energy), but you have to drive it, no one else will. Mr Elumelu and also his great team will be interested in how their alumni have done, call to update them, ensure they keep you on their radar.
Social media like networks, is a means to an end, it is never the end. People have to start talking about you, about your value, about your business, about your impact, about your carbon footprint, your SDG results, about your network and your reach. It will not happen overnight, but you, YOU have to bring this to the boil and then keep it there and through that you will attract more customers, better access to markets, better suppliers, and even possibly, investors.
Stay safe.