The Monk and the Riddle

What was surprising or different about this book relative to what you know about entrepreneurship? I really have no experience with any startup companies, so the whole way Randy Komisar approaches Lenny (or basically any businesses he sees) is new for me. I have not (yet) been working in any company that is small and could be called an entrepreneurial challenge. My working experience is limited to a job as train traffic manager at the Swiss Federal Railways, which is basically coordinating trains and shunting without delays plus handling occurring system errors. The free thinking or the think further is not possible in that working environment, which bores me and drives me crazy. Fortunately we have projects at our University, in which you work with startups or established firms. That offers us a good insight into entrepreneurial thinking as we analyze those companies for strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats plus their products and the market environment and the consumer perception. My picture of Swiss companies or entrepreneurs I got so far is that they are mostly around 45, very conservative and not willing to hear critical voices. If you suggest changes in several areas, they try to justify why they don’t want to change it or why they think we are wrong. Lenny was at the beginning of the book just like that, but (and that’s very honorable in my opinion) he was willing to adopt his business plan after speaking with Randy. The question that comes up here: Was it pure greed that made him change the business plan to increase his chances to raise capital from VCs or was he really intrinsically motivated? I think the motivating cause lays at the beginning in the money, later on in the mission. This is also something I think I have recognized in entrepreneurs in Switzerland. After reaching a certain point of success, they are really open for new ideas (maybe that’s after reaching their own goals). Before this certain point, it is really hard to show them...