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The Monk and the Riddle
In light of the recent meltdown of all thinks internet-related, a book about entrepreneurs making deals with Venture Capitalists might seem a bit quaint. This book might be the exception. By emphasizing what is eternal, while also criticizing several specific attributes of the formerly hot IPO market, Randy Komisar points us towards a prescription for the recovery which will come with the next round of investment.
The capsule bio says that Randy Komisar is currently a "Virtual CEO" which means that he serves as a vizier for the real CEOs of several startups. Nice work if you can get it... all the visionary stuff without any of that nasty nuts and bolts stuff... He started his career in Providence RI, where he helped to run a concert promotion business (sounds like it was pretty loose and crazy -- a good introduction to the unstructured environment of a startup). He got a law degree and practiced law at a "prestigious" law firm before chucking his chance for making partner to go work contracts at Apple Computer in the mid-1980s. He also co-founded Claris Corp when Apple spun it out. He was CFO of GO Corp, as described in Jerry Kaplan's book Startup. He served as CEO at LucasArts Entertainment (games) and another small game company. Among his "Virtual CEO" successes are WebTV and TiVo.
Liner notes:
"What would you be willing to do for the rest of your life?
It's a question most of us consider only hypothetically -- opting instead to "do what we have to do" to earn a living. But in the critically acclaiimed bestseller The Monk and the Riddle, entrepreneurial sage Randy Komisar asks us to answer it for real. The book's timeless advice -- to make work pay not just in cash, but in experience, satisfaction, and joy -- will be embraced by anyone who wants success to come not just from what they do, but from who they are. At once a fictional tale of Komisar's encounters with a would-be entrepreneur and a personal account of how Komisar found meaning not in work's rewards but in work itself, the book illustrates what's wrong with the mainstream thinking that we should sacrifice our lives to make a living. Described by Fortune.com as "part personal essay, part fictional narrative and part meditation on the nature of work and life," The Monk and the Riddle is essential reading on the art of creating a life while making a living."
The Monk and the Riddle might be viewed as self-help for the masses of soulless, gadget-laden marketroids patrolling Sand Hill Road, in search of a Venture Capital-financed conveyor belt to riches. Komisar presents his life's lessons as applied to the peculiar subculture of VCs, angel investors, and startup entrepreneurs. Owing to the author's varied career, he likely does have some wisdom to impart -- and the success he has achieved seems to indicate that he didn't need to write the book for the money.
The new edition includes a new preface which looks back on the e-commerce and internet meltdown. Komisar does not take credit for having "predicted" the collapse, but he seems to feel that the themes and observations of the book did indicate that venality had replaced innovation towards the end of the recent tulip mania.
Monk takes the form of a narrative interspersed with illustrative episodes from the author's (Komisar's) own career. The narrative traces a series of conversations between Komisar and a fictional would-be entrepreneur "pitching" his e-commerce concept in the hope of getting startup capital. In the narrative, Komisar uses the "show, don't tell" device of cinema to reveal some details about the culture of Silicon Valley. Since Komisar is not himself a VC, he can offer a few tidbits to the entrepreneur (and the reader) which a VC might not -- such as the reluctance of a VC to give a straight "no" answer to an entrepreneur looking for funding. He also offers some basic "Startup Business Plans 101" advice, such as the need to seek a sustainable competitive advantage.
Komisar does propose some specific techniques which a business can use to improve its chances for success. In the third chapter, he describes the role he assumes with the title of "Virtual CEO." Many executives and managers could use a trusted advisor or mentor to avoid some of the worst pitfalls, and such an advisory role is the one Komisar likes to assume. The proposed formalization of such an arrangement may be an important business innovation, particularly to the legions of inexperienced executives of startups. In the chapter titled "The Big Idea," the author presents the typical "so what?" question in a somewhat different light -- instead of asking why the market should be excited about the business idea, Komisar asks the entrepreneur to consider why the idea is compelling to the founders of the company itself. He argues that a company composed of people who are passionate only about getting rich are unlikely to succeed.
The central themes of the book are existential and philosophical, not the nuts-and-bolts of business plans and venture financing. Those marketroids who may have missed out on Existentialism 101 may benefit from this book, but more well-rounded and intellectual readers may find the message a bit obvious and belabored. Thankfully, Komisar spares us the typical schtick found in so many business books aimed at managers and executives. He appears to derive general management principles from empirical evidence, rather than serving up the usual conceited advice aimed at those executives who only read books in the airport. Komisar may hit us over the head sometimes, but when the lesson is that we should invest in people and not things, it's hard to fault him. Those who need this lesson likely need it to be stated as plainly as possible.
Overall, I would characerize The Monk and the Riddle as an engaging, if somewhat light, view into the culture of Venture Capitalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Those familiar with this culture will find episodes and observations to confirm their perceptions, while the accessibility of the narrative will offer a valuable glimpse of the nature of the place to outsiders.
Table of Contents
Preface to the New Edition: Postmortem
Prologue: The Riddle
Chapter 1: The Pitch
Chapter 2: The Rules of the Game
Chapter 3: The Virtual CEO
Chapter 4: The Deferred Life Plan
Chapter 5: The Romance, Not the Finance
Chapter 6: The Big Idea
Chapter 7: The Bottom Line
Chapter 8: The Art of Leadership
Chapter 9: The Gamble
Chapter 10: The Whole Life Plan
Epilogue: The Road
Why can't I just win a large Lotto ;-)
Just sit back and do absolutely Nothing...
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
You don't need a million dollars to do nothing.
Sounds like it's somewhere in the middle of "The New New Thing" and "The Tao of Pooh". In any case, if there's good stuff to be learned without having to suffer through it first hand, it's usually a good read. Thanks for the detailed post/review.
I liked the book. Nice, but alas too late. Who cares about this stuff now? I wish people had read it 10 months earlier and learnt that selling coffins on the net can not possible be a very good idea.
Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition....
"Monk" has a nice 'overhead view' of the people part of the equation. Other books in this genre that 'get it right' always focus on people,t oo.
"Burn Rate" was about people screwing over people. Guy Kawalski's startup books are about people self-dedicating themselves to motivating other people. "Monk"'s sort of in the middle, in a lot of ways. Of the set, I favor the pragmatics of Kawalski, but 'Monk' is more uplifting. "Burn Rate" is what you read when you get bitter.
At a certain point, you realize success is totally abut people. Not tech, not even business, just people.
(Though perhaps not as extreme as the sarcastic
Anyone Can Be an Internet Success-- Why Aren't You? article!)
A.
Next:
The Zen Guide to Being a Rich Fat Bastard
I like the japanese bukkake part.
Where do I sign up?
take a look at Growing a Business, by Paul Hawkin.
While it's not specific to the tech industry, it's an excellent discussion of how to make money without being miserable about what you're doing or feeling that you're "selling out."
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
VC's probably overstate their talents but at least they're willing to risk other people's money in ways that banks can't or won't (and if anyone who started up a business on a credit card can attest it is nerve-wracking).
Now if people could only come up with some clever Open Source Funding models.
LL
Is it any wonder since most Americans don't even seem to understand WHY they've been attacked in the first place.
What? You don't think supporting Israel and her terrorist... sorry, "targeted killing" tactics isn't good enough a reason to attack you?
Why don't you leave the Middle-East alone. If Israel can make out a peace with her neighbours, excellent. If Israel can't live in peace, let them fight their own wars even if it means total annihilation of Israel. Who told them go there and grab Arabs' land in the first place?
...someone hasn't come out with "Venture Capitalism for Dummies" yet...
proof of Osama's guilt..
and the silver spoon
little boy blue and the man on the moon!"
oops, my mind wandered
"When you going public?"
I don't know when, but you know we'll have good time then, yeah
You know we'll have a good time then.
My boss arrived just the other day,
Came to work in the usual way...
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
I purchased this book based on a clever introduction that alluded to a profound, enlightening take on the subject. As I read it, though, I grew more and more disappointed that the author took himself so seriously while writing such shallow material. Basically, the book was ok, but not particularly worth reading.
Having worked at one of his startups, I can honestly say that he is a complete tool of the VCs.
I'm shocked that he would dare to say that people are important. He lied point-blank to all of the "people" in the company for a year, while enforcing the directives of the board.
If you want to see a really good veiw of the VC system, see this article.
about similar topics from an Australian perspective is Where's The Loot?. The author, Grant Butler, was a financial journalist during the boom and had the chance to see a fair number of companies in details. I strongly recommend it.
I read this book, and while I thought it was a bit "fluffy", perhaps I've just read too many technical tomes.
One thing that I got out of it and really enjoyed (its the riddle they mention) was the tension between two life plans that people adopt - the Whole Life Plan and the Split Life Plan.
The premise is that some people put off doing all the things that they want to do because they don't have money. They work for money, and will get to what they want later.
Others find a way to make money doing what they want, then they enjoy the whole journey - there is no "later" because they're doing what they want now.
The essence of the book is about one man's journey from the split life plan to a more balanced whole life situation, and in that sense its almost a typical coming of age story.
What I haven't fully resolved yet (and why I enjoyed the book - as its riddle stayed on my mind) is how to get myself more on a whole life plan. I'm not sure about you, but I'm delaying some things I want to do right now in order to work more, in the hopes that working more now will let me work less and play more later. I enjoy my work very much, just not to the exclusion of things that take money but don't make any.
I'm not sure if I'll reach the enlightened naked hippie frolicking joyful stage of total Whole Lifeness, whatever that is, but I have made some changes in my day-to-day routines that were geared towards moving farther from the split-life part of the spectrum. As a mental outlook, I think that's pretty positive, and I'm more fun to be around when I'm in that frame of mind.
So, not a bad book, though if it took more than a few hours to blow through it maybe wouldn't be worth it.
According to a reliable source "the people who run Slashdot have run off to join the circus". This reporter thinks not, but is troubled by the lamest and most totally boring lineup that he's seen in his years of reading slashdot. Let's investigate:
Book Reviews: The Monk and the Riddle (really boring)
Book Reviews: The Root of All Evil (pretty darn boring)
Book Reviews: Knights of the Limits (wow inhumanly boring)
Developers: Perl6 for Mortals (Glorified Book Ad but decent article and some conversation)
BSD: GNU-Darwin Goes Beta (For Mac fans... that's like what, 1% if the slashdot crowd?)
Developers: Carl Sassenrath Talks About REBOL
NAFPL (Not Another Friggin Programing Language)
Developers: Self-Improving Systems (Better this would be a boring story on msot days)
Developers: Advanced Filesystem Implementors Guide Continues (Actually pretty good stuff here too bad it's been up since Oct 27)
Developers: Mozilla Bug Week (Been there, done that it's coming along nicely and has been for decades it seems) No disrespect to the mozilla ppl but this has been news for nerds too many times and has been up since.... you guessed it Oct 27
So where is everyone? Is there really no news for nerds or has Slashdot gone fishin'? Inquiring minds want to know.
G
Why don't you leave the Middle-East alone.
Two things: Oil, and an oil pipe line smack bang through the middle of afghanistan.
Laying here in the shadows of my room, I squint up at my love. My Ms. Portman. I am sore and tired after fucking her for eight solid hours. My chapped and aching dick is soaking in grits to relieve the pain. She gets on her knees and starts lapping the grits up out of the bowl. She places her beautiful hands on my penis and starts to lick the grits off my achy piece.
Massaging my nutsack she....
WAIT, I DO IT WRONG!!!!
Yanking my dick out of her mouth I throw her to the ground and shove it in to her gaping freshly fisted ass.
"OH BIG ASS SPORK!! Fuck my ass, fuck my ass good. DEEPER, my stallion, deeper!! Make a Beowulf cluster of sperm on my back!!"
"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of this baby!"
I DO IT WRONG!!!!
Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner. If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, please email jamie@mccarthy.vg. HAHAHAHAA fuckers! I am not ssooo wrong I can't recover! All your trolls are belong to... forget it... Q: What do you call a 30week-old premee? A: An Appetizer! Q: What do you call a dead baby with no arms and no legs laying in a ditch? A: Phil Q: What is special about a dead baby over all other forms of life A: You can achieve deep throat from whichever way you enter Q: How are babies and the elderly alike? A: Both are fun to throw out of moving cars. Q: What's red and dances A: A baby on a barbecue Q: Whats worse than finding 7 dead babies in 1 trash can? A: Finding 1 dead baby in 7 trash cans. Q: What's the difference between a Dead Baby and a tree? A: One is legal to hit with an AX. Q: What bounces up and down at 100mph? A: A baby tied to the back of a truck. Q: What's brown and gurgles? A: A baby in a casserole. Q: Whats the best thing about a siamese twin baby? A: Threesomes. Q: What do you get when you have sex with a pregnant woman? A: A baby with a black eye! Q: What's blue and flies around the room at high speeds? A: A baby with a punctured lung. Q: What's red and goes round and round? A: A baby in a garbage disposal. Q: What's the difference between a gay man and a freezer? A: You can't hide dead babies in a gay man. Q: What's more fun than strapping a baby to a washingline and then spinning it around at 200km/h? A: Stopping it with a shovel. Q: What do you call a dead baby with no arms and no legs hanging on your wall? A: Art Q: What do you call a dead baby with no arms and no legs laying on your porch? A: Matt Q: What do you call a dead baby with no arms and no legs laying on a beach? A: Sandy Q: What do you call a dead baby with no arms and no legs in a swimming pool? A: Bob Q: What do you call a dead baby with no arms and no legs in the middle of the ocean? A: Fucked Q: Whats worse than smoking pot with a baby? A: Making a bong out of it. Q: What's the difference between a dead baby and a felt tip marker? A: you don't get second looks when you're writing with a felt tip marker! Q: Why did the dead baby cross the road? A: It was chained to a bumper. Q: What do you have when you have 4 dead babies, take away two, and add 5 more? A: An orgy! Q: What's the difference between a dead baby and a table? A: You can't fuck a table. Q: How do you make a dead baby float? A: Take your foot off of it's head. Q: If a tree falls on a baby in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, is it still hilarious? Q: What is red and creeps up your leg? A: A homesick abortion. Q: What's red and lies in all four corners of the room? A: A baby that's been playing with a chainsaw. Q: What do vegetarian dingos eat? A: Cabbage patch kids. Q : Whats white and bobs up and down in a baby's crib ? A : A Pedophiles ass. Q: What's the difference between a watermelon and a dead baby? A: A watermelon floats. Q: Whats the safest way to play with a baby ? A: With a condom. Q: What gets louder as it gets smaller? A: A baby in a trash compacter. Q: What do you call a baby on a stick? A: A Kebabie. Q: What's the difference between a lamp and a dead baby? A: It's really easy to turn on a lamp. Q: Whats does a blind, deaf, quadriplegic baby can get for Christmas ? A: Cancer. Q: Why are test tube babies the most beautiful ones? A: Because they're hand made. Q: What's the difference between a dead baby and a trampoline? A: When you jump on a trampoline, you take your boots off. Q: What is the definition of revenge? A: A baby with a dingo in its mouth. Q: What's the difference between a baby and a bagel? A: You can put a bagel in the toaster. You have to put the baby in the oven. Q: What's the difference between a bucket of gravel and a bucket of baby guts? A: You can't gargle gravel. Q: Why did the toddler fall off his bike? A1: A fridge fell on him . A2: He was quadraplegic. Q: Why do you unload a truck full of babies with a pitchfork? A: So you can tell which ones are still alive. Q: How do you know when you hit a live one? A: The pitchfork shakes Q: What's this? (hold arms out and shake them) A: A live one. Q: Why do you stick a baby in the blender feet first? A: So you can see the expression on its face! Q: What's blue and thrashes about on the floor? A: A baby playing in a plastic bag. Q: What is bright blue, pink, and sizzles? A: A baby trying to breast feed from an electrical outlet. Q: What's sicker than driving over a baby? A: Skidding. Q: How do you spoil a baby? A: Leave it out in the sun. Q: How do you stop a baby falling down a manhole? A: Stick a javelin through it's head. Q: How do you make a gay men pregnant? A: stick a dead baby up his ass! Q: Why did the toddler drop it's lollypop? A: It was hit by a truck... Q: What goes plop, plop, fizz, fizz? A: Twins in an acid bath. Q: What's red, screams and goes around in circles? A: A baby with its foot nailed to the floor. Q: What's the difference between a Cadillac and a pile of dead babies? A: I don't have a Cadillac in my garage. Q: How many babies does it take to paint a house? A: Depends how hard you throw them Q: Whats more fun than feeling up a dead baby A: Feeling up a dead baby with three nipples Q: What is the differance between a dead baby and a VHS tape? A: The VHS tape don't stink when you leave it out in the sun Q: How do you prepare a dead baby for Valentine's Day? A: You shove a box of chocolates down his throat and a boquet of roses up his ass. Q: Why did the Baby fall out of the Tree? A: Because he was DEAD! Q: What's grosser than gross? A: A garbage can full of dead babies. Q: What's grosser than that? A: The one at the bottom is still alive. Q: What's grosser than that? A: He has to eat his way to freedom. Q: What's grosser than that? A: He goes back for more. Q: How do you get a baby to run faster? A: Chase it with the lawn mower. Q. What's the difference between a dead baby and an onion. A. You don't cry when you chop up a dead baby. Q: What has 4 legs and one arm? A: A Doberman in a children's playground! Q:What does a baby and a Pinto have in common? A:They're fun to ride until they die. Q: What happens when you burn baby's face off? A: It makes weird noises and crawls into walls. Q: what's funnier than a dead baby? A: a dead baby sitting next to a kid with down syndrome. Q: What do you get whan you dislocate a dead baby's jaw? A: Deep Throat. Q: What's blue and bloated and floating in your beer? A: A dead baby with fetal alcohol syndrome! Q: Whats white and red and hangs from a telephone wire? A: A baby shot through a snowblower. Q: How do you know when a baby is a dead baby? A: The dog plays with it more. Q: What does a bum call a dead baby in a dumpster? A: A Freeloader. Q: What do you get when you put a dead baby in a blender? A: Hold on. I'll tell you in a second. Q: What is better than a dead baby? A: The revoked child-support. Q: Whats the difference between a baby and a grandmother? A: Grandmothers dont die when you fuck them in the ass Q: What's the difference between a dead baby and a peanut butter cup? A: The dead baby won't stick to the roof of your mouth. Q: Why didn't they crucify baby jesus? A: I dont know why they didn't either. Q: What's the difference between a truck full of bowling balls and a truck full of dead babies? A: You can't unload a truck full of bowling balls with a pitchfork. Q: What's the worst thing about fucking a dead baby? A: Wiping the blood stains off of your clown suit! Q: What's the best sound in the world? A: Hearing dead baby's hips crack under pressure! Q: what wiggles spits and is covered in shit? A: inside out baby! Q: What's blue and orange and lies at the bottom of a swimming pool? A: A baby with burst armbands. Q: How do you make a dead baby float? A: Two scoops of ice cream, one scoop of dead baby. Q: Whats worse than a having sex with a dead baby? A: Having sex with a dead baby filled with razor blades. Q: What's 18 inches long and makes women scream all night ? A: Crib death. Q: Why is there always hot water at childbirth? A: In case of a stillbirth, soup. Q: How do you stop a baby from choking? A: Take your dick out of its mouth. Q: What's red, bubbly, and scratches at the window before exploding? A: A baby in a microwave. Q: When is the best time to bury that baby you killed? A: When it starts talking to you again. Q: How many babies does it take to make a bottle of baby oil? A: It depends on how hard you squeeze them. Q: What's more fun than stapling babies to a wall? A: Ripping them off again. Q: What do you call a dead baby with its skin peeled off? A: Sexy. Q: What's funnier than a dead baby? A: A dead baby in a clown costume! Q: What's blue and flies around the room at high speeds? A: A baby with a punctured lung. Q: What do you call a dead baby pinned to your wall? A: Art! Q: How do you get 100 babies into a bucket? A: With a blender! Q: How do you get them out again? A: With Doritos!! Q: What is pink and red and sits in a corner? A: A baby chewing on razor blades. Q: What is green and sits in a corner? A: The same baby, six weeks later. Q: What is red and pink and can't turn round in a corridor? A: A baby with a javelin through its throat. Q: What is more disgusting than a pile of 100 dead babies? A: One live one in the middle is eating its way out. Q: What's blue and sits in the corner? A: A baby in a baggie. Q: What's present do you get for a dead baby? A: A dead puppy. Q: What's purple, covered in pus and squeals? A: A peeled baby in a bag of salt. Q: What sits in the kitchen and keeps getting smaller and smaller? A: A baby combing it's hair with a potato peeler! Q: What's pink and red and silver and crawls into walls? A: A baby with forks in its eyes. Q: Why did the baby cross the road? A: It was stapled to the chicken. Q: What do you get when you cut a baby with a straight razor? A: An erection. Q: Why did the baby fall off the swing? A: Because it had no arms or legs. Q: What's got four wheels, smokes and squeals? A: A bus load of babies on fire. Q: What's harder to do than nailing a baby to a tree? A: Nailing it to a dead puppy. Q: What's grosser than ten dead babies nailed to a tree? A: One dead baby nailed to ten trees. Q: What's pink and chunky? A: A baby with leporacy. Q: Why do babies have a soft spot in their heads? A: So you can pick them up five at a time. Q: How many dead babies does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: As many as it takes to climb on top of them in order to reach the socket. Q: What's pink and spits? A: A baby in a frying pan. Q: What's worse than finding a dead baby on your pillow in the morning? A: Realizing you were drunk and made love to it the night before. Q: What's more fun than a barrel of dead babies? A: Sticking pins in their eyes. Q: How do you make a baby cry twice? A: Wipe your bloody cock on his teddy bear The