Randy Komisar is a Venture Capitalist out of Silicon Valley, at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, right there on Sandhill road. The heart and soul of tech investing. He is the former CEO of LucasArts Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, and acted as “virtual CEO” for WebTV and GlobalGiving. He served as CFO of GO Corp. and senior counsel at Apple Computer, following a private practice in technology law. He is a Founding director of TIVO and a graduate of Harvard law school. Plus a great guy.
Episode Summary: Passion Pulls, Integrating Who We Are with What We Care About
- On why he wrote The Monk and The Riddle: It occurred to me that nobody is ever going to ask me to write a book again
- 3 parameters for writing the book
- Won’t be a business book, rather a book about life
- Business is about the small events- not big events
- I need a writing coach
- What was important to me- the heart and soul- business is a set of tools allowing us to accomplish things as groups
- Book goals
- Share the best learnings from Silicon Valley
- Wanted to explore the motivations that make great entrepreneurs
- The core of great innovators
- It’s a Buddhist book- I wanted to express my principles learned through practicing Buddhism
- The contrast of Silicon Valley and Buddhism led me to compare the two
- Principles of Buddhism
- Manage the ego
- Not being sidelined by desire
- A sense of the possible
- the inner connections of all
- approach problems/people from these practices
- Passion pulls and drives pushes
- Make work pay, not just in cash but in experience, satisfaction and joy
- Bill Campbell taught- business is about people
- Money is the first derivative of doing great work that is meaningful
- The deferred life plan- doing something you did not want to do today in the hopes that in the future you will buy yourself the liberty to do what you truly want
- The whole life- integrating who we are with what we care about
- Marry what we care about with what we do
- The most precious thing you have is your time (not money)
- A feeling of discontent leads to risk taking for increased benefit
- Secret: never let your lifestyle get out of control
- I never thought of it as budget, but what was “right”
- Enjoy what you got, during the ride
- I provide the scarcest commodity of all- leadership and experience
- You can get money everywhere (embarrassment of riches) what you can’t get is the mentorship, guidance and support to be the best entrepreneur you can be
Listen to the Audio
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Learning From Leaders:
Current Book: Dogen’s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku by Taigen Dan Leighton
Best Movie Ever: Man on Wire
Leadership Superpower: Listening
Motivational Mantra:
[shareable cite=”Bill Campbell”]The next time you are in the endzone, act like you’ve been there before[/shareable]
Additional Items Mentioned
Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
