Have any of you read this book?
The Monk and the Riddle : The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Life
by Randy Komisar
The sound bite from the book that everybody quotes is “What would you be willing to do for the rest of your life . . . ?” and that you should seriously answer it. Based on comments I read it seems the author thinks most people don’t seriously answer that question or they answer it in an un-realistic way as in “well, if I won the lotto I’d travel for the rest of my life”.
His point is that you need to figure out what you will enjoy doing for the rest of your life, whatever that is, then do it. As in, “I enjoy making games so I’m going to make games for the rest of my life” or “I enjoy helping people get well so I’m going to be a family doctor for the rest of my life”.
Separate from his book, what do you guys think about that kind of idea. Do most people even know? Is there a way to figure it out if you don’t? The author’s point seems to be in relation to a career as in since you spend 8 to 12 hours a day at the office you going to be dis-satisfied with your life if you define it as stuff outside of work. Or, conversely, if work is only a means to get that stuff outside of work then work is unlikely to be successful. I’m not sure how that follows but that idea seems to be in there too.
Do any of you know what you want to do for the rest of your life? I sure don’t. From 15 to 25 I thought it was be the president of a succussful game publisher. From 25 to 36 I thought it was be the president of a successful game developer. Now I’m not sure. So far, developing games is alot of work. People seem to think there’s got to be a way to do it without working lots of 70+ hour weeks but is there a single case in all of the game industry where a *hit* game has been made on 40 hours weeks?
But, maybe that’s just the problem, making games requires 70 hour weeks and instead of being upset that you’d like more time outside of work you should just look at work as one of the things you enjoy in life. Hmmm, I find that hard to buy, staring at a monitor 8 to 12 hours a day.
Maybe that’s not the issue, maybe it’s just a balance issue but that life would still be better if you enjoyed the 1/3 of your life at work as well as the 2/3rd outside of it.
I find it often dis-ingenuous when I read a successful person’s advice because lots of people’s successes are the result of luck. For example look at Naughty Dog. They work their asses off, don’t get me wrong, but where would they be if they had not scored the Crash deal with Crash as a Sony mascot. Would they just be like most, making game after game but never actally getting ahead. Or how about Microsoft? If Microsoft had not scored the original DOS deal would they be the industry leader today or would they be about as relavent as Lotus? So, you read these books and they say “if you just try hard enough you’ll succeed”. While that feels true I’m not so sure.
Whatever, I can see that I’m rambling.
It's on my Amazon wishlist now.
I wonder if Randy Komisar, the author, included any stories from his days as CEO of Crystal Dynamics.
Continuing on that *not trusting successful people's advice* thing, this Randy Komisar guy, who is he? Why is he CEO of many companies? I really got a strong vibe about that when I first met Strauss Zelnick (sp?). He was our first CEO at Crystal Dyanimcs back when "mutlimedia" was going to take over the world. Before that he was president of 20th Century Fox. Yes, the movie studio. Why he went from president of a huge movie studio to CEO of an small 30 person company I'm not sure but he hated it because he not longer got the respect he was used to. I heard he got really upset when he some meeting he had with the president of Sega got cancelled on him. As president of 20th Century Fox, stuff like that would have never happened. He had pictures on his wall of meeting lots of famous people including various U.S. Presidents etc. After a year he quit and became some kind of president/CEO of BMG, the huge multinational music company.
Anyway, that's all unimportant. I think he was in his later 30s early 40s I'm guessing. What I wondered after meeting him was, how did he get here? I mean, he's just another guy. What makes him so special at 40 that people hire him to be president of 20th Century Fox or BMG? I'm not saying he's not worth it or not qualified, I think he raised 26 million for us in inventments, maybe more. But, I'm saying what steps were taken for him to get there. We see the steps Bill Gates took or Steven Jobs. They started from nothing and built huge companies through hard work and lots of luck. But Strauss on the other hand, maybe he has a long history but my impression is he's more *installed*. Like you go to Harvard, they give you a piece of paper that says "Install this guy as CEO of your company because we say so" and of course, like everything else, once you can put CEO on your resume the next company will hire you to be there CEO too.
Can I go to Harvard and get that paper too and start making millions a year?
Of course the other thing I learned at Crystal is how important networking is and of course being a programmer that is arguably one of my week points. Crystal was funded by venture capital and as such I got to see just a little of how that works. What I took away from that is basically, like anybody, when you need something you ask your friends to help out. Okay, so what does a very rich person do when he wants to start or fund a new company? Just like everybody else he asks his friends to help out. Want to be installed as the head of technology at some new startup? Go smooze with some rich people, sooner or later when they need your talents they will go down their list of people and give you a call just like many of my friends and family call me when they need their computers fixed.
Another important idea I took from that is that when raising your kids, one, teach them to network (be social) as it's the single most important skill for being successful and two, get them to a very high-class college because it's at those places that they can use their networking skills to meet the people that will help them succeed. Obivously it can be done in otherways but that seems to be a very big plus.
Ok, here I am again putting in my 2 cents. What is the definition of success?
sucｷcessｷes) noun
1. achievement of desired aim: the achievement of something planned or attempted
2. attainment of fame, wealth, or power: impressive achievement, especially the attainment of fame, wealth, or power
3. something that turns out well: something that turns out as planned or intended
4. somebody who has significant achievements: somebody who has a record of achievement, especially in gaining wealth, fame, or power
Now I would say that the real question is, which definition do you have to fit, in order to be that "company to company, CEO" I know I am just a simple little person, but, it seems to me that for the most part, success by is something one needs/wants to make themselves, look good/impressive to others. I know pretty screwed way for me to think.
While I know that this is, "The way the World Works". I don't really know why, some people have this (as you say) Harvard "CEO" paper. It has been my experience that half of these people are just loud speaking, "Yes, Men", puppeting themselves out from company to company. When you ever get a chance to see their resume, it says CEO, CEO, CEO well what did they do before that? To take a quote from another friend of mine. "Just nod, like tha dog in the back of the car window."
Anyway, I can see why you may not trust these people's opinions. It seems that for the most part they either as you say, "Networked" really well, or they were in the "Right place at the Right time." They probably just make it up as they go.
I didn't mean to put down those guys, it just made me curious. Like I said, Strauss raised at least 26 million for Crystal, could I have done that? I don't think so. I wouldn't even no where to start. But still, he had to start somewhere before Crystal, before 20th Century Fox etc..
My not trusting the opinion is more of a "do they really know how they got where they got?", if I follow their advice will I get similar results? I'm not so sure, that's all.
As for *success*, I feel like being able to do the things I want to do is *success* vs having to do lots of things I don't want to do. Most people have to go to work everyday whether they really want to or not because they need to pay their rent and buy food. Some people actually like their work so going to work is not something they have to do but want to do. Other people get/are rich so they can do almost whatever they want whenever they want. Contrary to popular opinion, most rich people are pretty happy.
I also don't trust people whose job is "career president", meaning, people who jump from company to company, being president. Randy is a prime example. Has he worked at one place for more than a year or two?
When he asked himself "what do I want to do with the rest of my life?" he must have answered "collect stock from as many companies as possible." That and "Talk as loud as possible".
Strauss, on the other hand, would never write a self-help book. Unless it was ghost written, that is. As an alien, he finds it difficult to communicate with us humans.
BTW, tele-marketers call my number at work all the time asking for Randy Komisar. They're very insistent, even after I tell them he hasn't worked at Crystal in 5 years. It's a pain. For that reason alone I don't like him. >:[