Komisar talks about what he looks forward to in his career and life. He advises others who are unsure about the future to find ways to optimize their situation, the people they work with, and the flow of available opportunities. He also notes that the notion of being in motion is an important aspect of who he is and what he enjoys doing.

Transcript



What makes you tick? What do you look forward to? Well, my career and my life makes a lot more sense in the rear-view mirror than it does in the windshield. I don't have any real strong sense of direction. [Laughs] I tend to get excited about things and do them. I tend to get excited about people and work with them. And what I have found ... and I thought about distilling this a little bit, because every year, at the end of my class, my students come to me and go, "Woe is me. What am I going to do with my life?" It's always that question, it's just year after year after year. And so each year, I try to distill it down more and more and more and more. And I think I got it to a point where I'm very comfortable with two simple principles. Which is, when looking at what you want to do with your life, find the way to optimize who it is, the quality of the people that you get to work with and the flow of opportunities that you're going to be in the middle of because great people support each other and build great networks that reinforce this recycling of opportunities. And the second is, great opportunities are essentially where you go next. And the notion of being in motion is probably an important aspect of who I am and why I've done what I've done. There's a real sense that there's always something else. There's always another chapter. There's always something important to be done, exciting to be done with really good people. And so I think that's at the root. If you look at the core, that's probably a better definition of why I've done what I've done than anything else that you could imagine from all of the other facts about my resume.

1. A Venture Capitalist Innovation Process
2. The TiVo Transformation
3. Innovation Advice from George Lucas
4. A Cautionary Word on the Deferred Life Plan
5. Necessity-Driven Entrepreneurship
6. Lessons Learned from Failures
7. A View On Industry Bubbles and Investment Partners
8. Optimizing Career and Life Opportunities
9. Different Entrepreneurs Excel in Various Company Stages
10. Skills Of Great Entrepreneurs
11. The Supportive Silicon Valley Ecosystem

Randy Komisar answer questions on Entrepreneurship for Stanford University students on March 3, 2007. Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and author of the best-selling book The Monk and the Riddle, talks about how innovation occurs at Kleiner Perkins. Instead of giving projects a thumbs up or thumbs down, the firm uses a set of filters to review and improve these projects. Through this process of iteration, innovation and problem solving occurs between investors and entrepreneurs, he notes.