Leeroy Jenkins!

A few weeks ago my 17 year old nephew was in town. I thought I was being a wise elder by sharing some of my worldly advice. I said, “I think office politics and relationship management should be taught in high school—because those are really important skills to have in business.” He suggested that he was already learning all that through multi-player video games.

At first I thought he was kidding given that the last video game I played involved a monkey jumping over barrels to save a princess. “No,” he said, “games are totally different now—they take teamwork, coordination, and cooperation.”

Sure enough the very next week Toby sent me a link to a hilarious YouTube video starring the infamous Leeroy Jenkins: (PG 13)

Leeroy Jenkins is the name that Ben Schulz gave to his character in the extremely popular online video game World of Warcraft. In order to attain the highest rewards in the game, you have to band together in teams and work together on coordinated campaigns to overcome obstacles. Sounds a lot like business!

Leeroy Jenkins seems to have fallen asleep during the team meeting. When he wakes up he leaps into battle, which ends up getting his whole team wiped out.

Many Leeroy Jenkins entrepreneurs similarly think they can do it alone, and dive into a new venture without a business plan, without a solid business model, without funding, and without the coordination of a team. In their naive enthusiasm, they end up losing all their money and disappointing their business partners.

Both smart gamers and smart entrepreneurs take on new challenges with a solid plan and a coordinated team. Don’t pull a Leeroy! Create a solid plan and then take bold action.