Chapter 16 Section 15: Meaningful VS Making Money

Most people are not willing to give up their comfortable life and go to a distant land to challenge difficult problems.In many cases, though, much smaller challenges seem to daunt them just as much.For many, changing jobs or moving from one side of town to another can be as risky as doing relief work in a foreign country.Maintaining the current "good enough" status quo is of course much more comfortable than another option with great uncertainty.Most people are content to take small, sure steps that don't go far without getting into trouble. Meaningful vs Making Money Those venture capital companies that invest in emerging industries have won praise from the industry for their ability to accurately judge problems and dare to take high risks to solve them.They will not look at the small problems that are solved step by step, but only watch the emergence of big opportunities.They look to the future, analyze the new problems they will face, and then invest their money in innovations that address those problems head-on. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a prime example of this, with a stellar track record of anticipating future challenges and investing in solutions accordingly.KPCB invested in biotechnology, Internet commerce, and alternative energy long before they became household names because it foresaw Genentech, Sun Microsystems, Amazon, Google ( Google), Netscape, Intuit, Electronic Arts, and others will influence the future. Randy Komisar (Randy Komisar), one of the partners of KPCB, pointed out that the vision of an entrepreneur is to see that the world is full of opportunities.He and his colleagues have found that identifying difficult problems and solving them can pay off richly for everyone involved.

In his book, The Monk and the Riddle, Randy emphasizes that while solving puzzles can be profitable, it's important to have a passion for solving them, rather than being motivated by the desire to make money. drive.To explain the difference between the two, he drew an analogy between missionaries, who were zealously pursuing a noble cause, and mercenaries, who were merely self-serving.A missionary focus on finding solutions to big problems creates successful businesses.Randy's views were echoed by writer Guy Kawasaki, who said that "meaning should be more important than making money".If you uphold the goal of "meaningful", then it is very possible to make money after trying to solve the problem in an innovative way; , can't do anything meaningful.