Charlotte Observer | 03/10/2002 | Successful mouse = started in the hole

THE MOUSEDRIVER CHRONICLES

By John Lusk and Kyle Harrison. Perseus. 244 pages.=20 $24.

In the spring of 1999, John Lusk and Kyle Harrison were = about to=20 receive MBAs from the prestigious Wharton School of Business = and=20 decide whether to accept one of the many lucrative job = offers before=20 them, or devote their talent and energy to an idea scribbled = on the=20 back of a coaster one evening in a Dallas bar.

Wary of the predictable career routes chosen by fellow=20 classmates, the two "can-do, all-American capitalists" = decided to=20 take their sketch of the MouseDriver -- a computer mouse = shaped like=20 the head of a golf club -- and see it through to a = successfully=20 marketed specialty product.

It wasn't exactly the light bulb. But the mouse presented = the two=20 with a challenge to the most basic of business skills: how = to take a=20 simple idea, some brainstorming, and turn it into a = moneymaking=20 venture.

They began by doing what all MBAs do: churn out an = endless flow=20 of speculation in the form of strategy summaries, balance = sheets, a=20 marketing plan and flow charts. On paper, it all looked like = a sure=20 thing, so the two maxed out their credit cards, borrowed = from=20 friends and family and moved to the bustling Silicon Valley = to set=20 up shop as Platinum Concepts Inc.

Then reality set in.

The illusions of business-world domination succumbed to a = daily=20 litany of cold-call rejections, price overruns and missed=20 deadlines.

Sales projections alluded to in the flow charts proved=20 fantastically wrong, and instead of raking in millions over = two=20 years as they originally planned, Lusk and Harrison began to = pray=20 for one decent paycheck in six months.

After a lean first year, the pair eventually learned to = rely on=20 others to get the Mouse-Driver to its proper market. More = snafus=20 followed, and the ego-crushing nature of their enterprise = forced on=20 them an appreciation of the randomness and dumb luck that = ultimately=20 provided the chronicle its quirky, self-effacing tone.

In the end, their risk paid off and the Mouse-Driver = found its=20 way onto the desks of corporate America. Lusk and Harrison = didn't=20 make millions, but they did achieve modest financial success = and=20 found personal satisfaction.

Written at a time when the name "dot-com" alone brought = about=20 visions of instant wealth, "The MouseDriver Chronicles" = reads like a=20 how-to manual of old-school entrepreneurship by two people = who not=20 only succeed, but finally have fun at what they are = doing.


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