If you were intrigued by last month’s post about Valentine’s Day in Korea, and thought it was too good to be true, well…you’re correct. While Valentine’s Day is all about the man in Korea, the next 14^th of the month is all about the women. That means, fellas, that you are required to pony up this time. Candy or chocolates, stuffed toys or flowers, it’s up to you. Just don’t, under any circumstances, forget!

All of that amazing luck we ran into a month ago, down the drain… (smile) 

Today is the 14^th, and you know what that means! There is something special going on in Korea!

As one of the world’s most advanced and bustling consumer goods economies, Korea has, more than anywhere else on earth, mastered the art of creating demand. And one of its most effective tactics has been to create artificial holidays designed to move products off shelves.

Today happens to be Diary Day. On this special day, couples exchange for the upcoming year with each other. Clever and convenient, right? This way, they can mark each other’s birthdays, anniversaries, and other special plans they may have together in the upcoming year.

Happy diary-ing!

Reflecting on this year, one of the most significant events in the business world was the news that Facebook was going public. On the day of the initial public offering, CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed up on Wall Street wearing a hooded sweatshirt, a far cry from the room full of suits he was speaking to. Some took it  as a sign of disrespect. Others came to his defense, saying that he was just being himself.

Zuckerberg’s fashion choice on that day was another symbolic representation of the differences between East and West within the US. The East Coast is the Old Guard: Suits, suits and more suits. Boston, New York, DC…it doesn’t matter. Business attire is business attire, and people fall in line.

The West Coast, on the other hand, has a very strong entrepreneurial culture. A quick look at some of the world’s most successful “new” companies in the past two decades—Google, Yahoo, eBay, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and of course Facebook—shows that they all call the West Coast home. (Granted, Facebook started in Boston, but since it has been a corporation it has been in the Silicon Valley).

When you go to work for someone else, you submit to their corporate culture. But when you create your own business, you call the shots. Walk through the offices of any of those companies above, and it’s clear that these companies (with the debatable of Microsoft) were built by a new breed of entrepreneur.

The concept of wearing shorts to work in offices featuring bright green or yellow or orange walls is foreign to most on the East Coast, but commonplace in the West. And in his choice of hoodie for his big wall street debut, Zuckerberg stayed true to that, for better or worse.

Zuck’s hoodie demonstrates the West Coast business culture (image credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)