The Mouse Bride and the Startup.

I’m in Seattle for an extended holiday break. My in-laws live here. In fact, I used to live here too. Since we are pitching NeedsList as the “Amazon of Humanitarian Aid” I figured, why not try to see if there’s some way to pick someone’s brain who actually works there. (Incidentally, that’s what they tell you to do, the Uber of pizza delivery. AirBnB for funeral homes. We can only handle disruption when defined by a previous disruptor….)

Finding someone at Amazon to connect with is a bit like the Kevin Bacon game, but way easier. We’re all just one degree removed. So I came home this evening after a lovely beer with an advisor’s son’s ex-soccer team-mate, P. He’s twenty five and already a project manager at Prime Now.

P was eager to hear what we are doing at NeedsList. He was exploding with ideas for potential collaborations. And talking to him I could see it — a partnership with the behemoth of e-commerce. We’d be set. It would be a game-changer as we launch our model of direct delivery for urgently needed supplies.

And then I made my excuses, I wanted to get back in time to put the kids to bed.

Why startup founders need to read bedtime stories

“Mom, can you read us this one?”

Karma being karma, this is the story they chose.

Have you read this book? I hadn’t.

Here’s the quick summary.

Mouse believed she was very weak. She decided key to her success would be marrying a strong man. So mouse went on an adventure to find him. First she spoke with Sun. But Sun sent her to Cloud (the cloud can block the sun, so strong!). And Cloud set her to Wind…. (the wind shakes the clouds, so strong!) who sent her to House. House denied being the strongest, saying she must meet the creature eating away at his foundations. Mouse called out to this creature, all to find out, of course, it was another mouse.*

It really is a beautiful thing being a startup entrepreneur in your forties with small children — there’s no chance of getting lost in the bubble. There’s always a small voice reminding you of what’s really important.

I closed the book, thinking about how we are all looking for the ultimate partner — those whose strength will carry us forward, shield us through dark times.

but in the end, perhaps, what we need is another mouse.

Or rather — not just one mouse, it’s mice — so many mice.

And that is my new year’s lesson.

Because it is so easy to be seduced by Sun, or Wind, or House.

But we are the mice. We can shake houses, we can crack foundations, we can topple buildings.

And what else can happen when the mice band together?

I don’t know. But that’s a story I hope to read.

I just need to make sure to carve out that half hour for bedtime. After all, that’s when the best stories happen.

* This book is of course, available on Amazon.

** Please note that I’m trying to keep on message, so refraining from focusing on the fact that Mouse could have toppled House without a man, she just needed to recognize her own power. And evidently, in other versions of this Chinese folk tale, it’s the mouse’s father who wanted to marry her off, not the mouse herself. She probably was busy hacking Amazon’s code**