The following is a post written by a blogger Dave Phillipson. Even though I would have written few comments differently, the overall sentiment about the show ‘Shark Tank’  is accurate. Hollywood is known for replicating proven TV formats that are successfully tested elsewhere. The widely popular shows like “Who Wants to be a millionaire”, ‘The Office’, along with a parade of reality shows imported from the UK did well in the past. But, this time Hollywood got it wrong in every level, trying to imitate BBC’s ‘Dragon Den’ format.

Having lived in 6 states and advocated for and worked with numerous entrepreneurial ventures, I find that the fundamental entrepreneurial spirit here in the United States is different from almost every other part of the world. America was an experiment, the country built on entrepreneurial spirit and the foresight of the founders. 98% of all businesses in the United States are small businesses. 40 million Americans practice entrepreneurship at some level on a daily basis. What these hardworking entrepreneurs do not want to see is a show on their National TV showcasing fellow entrepreneurs as underdogs, being taken advantage  by mean spirited, unknown investors who do not seem to understand what it means to be an entrepreneur and what it takes to foster entrepreneurship from a bigger picture.

Here is an excerpt of his post..

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by Dave Phillipson

Not many people even know what Shark Tank is.

That’s because not too many people watched the trainwreck on ABC Television.
Here, we’ll uncover the truth behind the actual ratings.
Sure, it had a twitter following, though even the majority who followed it on twitter didn’t have much of a following.

It’s major problems?

It was mean spirited.
It was competitive
The sharks took advantage of entrepreneurs
The show didn’t do a good job of education
People don’t want to see that

By mean spirited there were some awful personal attacks by the Sharks, who actually weren’t as business savvy as the show built them up to be.

The show could have been collaborative, but instead, they chose the competitive model. The same model that Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, W. Edwards Demming, Alan Dohrmann, Buckminster Fuller and Walt Disney stated would eventually cripple the United States. (It’s now crippled the global economy). The solution: a business model akin to the days when an entire community would raise a barn, sink a well and build the fences and homes.

The sharks would take advantage of desparate and uneducated Entrepreneurs. They would strike deals such as taking 51% of a company for $40,000 or 60% for 90k. They would then snicker and congratulate each other for “what a steal” they got the company for.

At CEO Space, I see deals like 20% for 5,000,000 or 2 million, or 3. 5% for 100k, etc., on a consistent basis. It is the norm at CEO Space. In 2009, CEO Space has generated over $3 Billion Dollars in funding for its members, while all the banks and venture capital firms were sitting on their hands. That was in just 5 meetings. In a full season of Shark Tank, I don’t think the entrepreneurs spent more than $3 Millon total.

The only education happening on Shark Tank was how to get screwed. There was no drill down on language, there was no conversation about, what one needs to do to become successful. If you watch SharkTankTVshow.com, you will watch an investment banker do an excellent job of educating entrepreneurs.

American’s don’t like to see quasi-rich people taking advantage of people trying to get ahead. We’re big-hearted & soft. A brilliant example of that is the overwhelming outpouring of acceptance of Under Cover Boss which came on after the Super Bowl, on CBS.

Read the original post on his blog

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Tags: entrepreneur tv, shark tank, why shark tank is a flop