Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

the impact of literature and connections

28 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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In this personal reflection, the speaker recounts reading Beth Comstock’s book on intrapreneurship—a guide to entrepreneurship within large corporations. While working at Northrop Grumman and studying at San Diego State University, the speaker found the book’s ideas resonated strongly with their own desire to act entrepreneurially inside a big company. They emailed Beth Comstock to share how the book influenced them, offering details about their role and studies but making no specific request. A few days later, Comstock replied with a brief, appreciative note, confirming the connection. The anecdote highlights how literature can shape professional mindset and the value of reaching out to thought leaders without a direct ask.

Chapters

I read this book that I really liked by Beth Comstock, who is a GE executive, and I wrote her an email, and I'm going to talk about this in purpose. I wanted to reach out to her and share the impact that her book had on my life. She wrote a great book on intrapreneurship, which is entrepreneurship within a company. I was working at Northrop Grumman at the time, and a lot of what she was saying about how you can be an entrepreneur within a larger corporation really spoke to me. But I basically was like, hey Beth, I loved your book. Here's, you know, some things about me. I'm a student at SDSU, I'm working at Northrop Grumman, and I think that your book was really impactful for me, and here's how I'm applying it in my work today. And then I was just like, you know, no ask, just thought it was cool, thought I'd share. And I think she ended up emailing me back like a couple days later and was just like, hey, thanks so much for the note.