Why I Watch Shark Tank
Shark Tank is a reality television show where both novice and seasoned entrepreneurs pitch their products and ideas to a committee of five uber-successful businesspeople (the “sharks”) in hopes of enticing one (or more) of the sharks to invest money in their company.
As an aside, do you know what a group of sharks is called? The answer is at the end of this post, so read on…
My family got hooked on watching Shark Tank when it first came on, and now we’re big fans of the show. As a parent and a small business owner, I find that Shark Tank is one of the very few television shows on a major U.S. television network that is both entertaining and educational (not counting The Simpsons 
, but I digress…) Allowing, even encouraging, my kids to watch Shark Tank is a classic Randy Pausch head fake. My kids watch the show for two reasons. First and foremost, they like the show because they like the sharks (and the banter between them). The key for reality television shows is to create super-sized personalities that people can identify with easily. Let’s start from left to right (yes, even sharks have assigned seats) Kevin H — well, I’m actually not sure why Kevin H. is on the show; he seems to say no to every deal. Daymond is the cool, street smart entrepreneur who can relate to everyone. Kevin O is my family’s favorite shark and easily the star of the show. He’s the Simon Cowell of Shark Tank. Kevin O says what everyone else, including the four other sharks, is afraid to say. Barbara is the nurturing mother hen who keeps the peace between the four male sharks (especially Kevin O and Robert). Last, but not least, Robert is the Goldilocks of the bunch. He’s not too nice… not too harsh… just right.
The second reason my kids like the show is that the show’s producers have done a great job of showcasing entrepreneurs with a wide range of personalities and products to pitch to the sharks. Some of my favorites include Mr. Tod’s Pie Factory, Ava the Elephant and my personal favorite, Pork Barrel BBQ. Now that Shark Tank has one season and several episodes under its belt, the producers have started to provide updates of contestants from previous episodes. Of course, you only see the success stories, but it’s still a nice touch.
Why do I like watching the show and encourage others to do the same? I’ll talk about the lessons that I’ve learned (and what you can learn) from watching Shark Tank in an upcoming post. My original intent for this blog post was to talk about what I’ve learned from watching Shark Tank; however, as I started to write the post I discovered that there was too much for a single blog post. You’ll just have to come back to SohoTrends.com and read part two!
If you want to learn more about the show, check out Wikipedia or ABC.com.
So, what do you call a group of sharks? According to the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center web site, a group of sharks is called a shiver.
