The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living

Amazon.com

Prospective entrepreneurs may think they know everything there is to know about starting a business in Silicon Valley. They can draw up business plans, have meetings with venture capitalists, maybe even get funded and actually launch a start-up. However, in The Monk and the Riddle, Silicon Valley sage Randy Komisar reasons that's only half the equation for success. And it may not be the important half. Komisar has worked with a number of companies--Apple, LucasArts Entertainment (the gaming division of George Lucas's empire), and WebTV among them--and has come to a rather startling conclusion: if you can't see yourself doing this business for the rest of your life, don't start it. In other words, he wants to see passion and purpose in business, not just spreadsheets and a by-the-numbers business model.

To illustrate, Komisar takes the reader through a hypothetical Silicon Valley start-up, with an eager entrepreneur named Lenny trying to get funding for an online casket-selling business. As Komisar helps Lenny find the real purpose of the business, the passion behind the revenue projections, he reflects back on his life as an entrepreneur. Komisar emerges as a master storyteller, the kind of guy you'd feel honored to share a bottle of wine with. And you believe his conclusion: "When all is said and done, the journey is the reward." It's great if you've made billions on the journey, but the important thing is that you do something you can truly throw yourself into. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

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 acclaimed 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.

"Belongs in a category by itself . . . The best thing I've read all year."
-San Francisco Examiner

"A timely book."
-USA Today

"A self-help manual and business fable rolled into one."
-The Times, London

Download Description

Transcending the typical leadership book model of lists and frameworks on how to succeed in business, The Monk and the Riddle is a lively and humorous narrative about the education of a unique Silicon Valley insider. Currently a virtual CEO who provides leadership on-demand to several renowned companies, Komisar's unique role was recently described as a combined professional mentor, minister without portfolio, in-your-face investor, troubleshooter, and door opener. But even more interesting than what he does is how and why he does it. Komisar has found a way to turn an ambitious and challenging worklife into his life's work. The book is at once a portal into the inner workings of Silicon Valley--from how startups get launched, to how venture capitalists do their deals, to how head-hunters make their matches--and a deeply personal account of how one mover and shaker found a payoff bigger than money. The Monk and the Riddle imparts valuable lessons about the differences between leadership and management, passion and commitment, and the meaning of professional and personal success. When all is said and done, writes Komisar, the journey is the reward.