Somehow the concept of transparency made its way into both my lunch and dinner conversations yesterday. It’s a worn topic, really, usually focused on privacy concerns and reputation (for the individual) or business opportunity, competitive pressure, or again, reputation (for the enterprise).  

At dinner, though, with a good friend, we briefly touched on what’s a rarely discussed downside to the transparency march: peer success comparison. Research indicates that happiness hinges to some extent on one’s evaluation of status relative to one’s friend group. Career guru Penelope Trunk moved from New York City to Madison, Wisconsin at least in part to earn what her neighbors earn. But I doubt one’s mental calculus finishes at the end of the block. It’s so easy now to stay on top of peers’ accomplishments, to know folks largely through virtual mechanisms but for the relationship to feel present, enough so to figure into one’s world view and introspective analysis.

Such broad-based comparisons are nothing new, of course.  Another friend religiously reads the New York Times’ wedding announcements and gets a kick out of scanning pedigrees. Unusual maybe, but I’d argue, too, that the public fixation on celebrities’ daily lives is part voyeurism, part vicarious living, and part self-soothing in witnessing the foibles and faults of a glorified peer group.

What’s different about today’s peer success comparison is its targeted scope. Tools have emerged to pretty easily monitor, and even interact with, a wide swath of acquaintances. And it’s only getting easier - consider Big Sight, an online “people directory” which allows one to slice affiliated peers by industry, location, graduation year, etc. The major social networks offer similar, albeit less facile, functionality.

I bring up the above because I think it’s particularly impacting entrepreneurs, for whom immense strength of will and determination at sticking through the tough times is often critical for success. And I think it’s harder to stick it out at times when you’re left wondering why an acquaintance got funding or hit it big. A feeling of being left behind looms in the wake of constant acquaintance success news. And sometimes that leads to risk-averse behavior.

There’s a counterpoint, here, of course, that targeted success comparison breeds motivation. It’s a fine line to ride, though, between motivation to push harder on your current tack and motivation to switch gears altogether, and sometimes onto a much less passion-centered and exciting path (scribe’s bias shining through).

So stick it out. Celebrate transparency but don’t get lost in it.

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Photo credit: Radiohead Crowd, originally uploaded by Samuel Stroube

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