REVIEW: Stan Rose, Ph.D — Can’t Tame a Mongoose (BOOK)

Stan Rose, Ph.D. is someone who mercifully, despite being a connoisseur of left-brain specifics, still has an ability to tell a story narratively, and tell one creatively. Dr. Rose makes his intellectually exclusive, generically obscure field accessible to the generally informed reader, someone who can step outside of themselves, pay close attention, and fully immerse themselves in a world different from their own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/stanleydrose/

This aesthetic is reflected in the titling of Dr. Rose’s book, simply put Can’t Tame a Mongoose: Memoir of a Genomics Entrepreneur. This kind of poetic communicatory style is further introduced by the quote Rose cites at the beginning of the read: ‘What we know about the future is poor; things that look bad can be the greatest

luck and vice versa; sometimes you have to take a chance’, Paul Rose — 1948. In bell-clear, eloquent prose, Rose is able to take the reader ideologically from A to Z, something critical in understanding the exact nature of his profession. A nonfiction memoir from a former genomics entrepreneur is decidedly heady stuff for the consumer. Rose demonstrates expert patience with the wide audience layman. In the process, he is able to simultaneously highlight the profundities of his work, what makes his work inspiring. Said inspiration, what it covers, as Rose brilliantly demonstrates repeatedly is universal.

“New technical ventures are risky. As many as 90 percent of them fail during their first five years. Aspiring entrepreneurs should expect no guarantee of reward in any sense of that word. After working hard for years, your equity could be worthless, and you could find yourself on the street unemployed with a bankruptcy on your résumé. In such environments it helps to be optimistic by nature and passionate about one’s goals,” he writes. “…As a genomics entrepreneur I’ve succeeded more frequently than most.

I believe this was partly due to a pursuit of opportunities I found intellectually stimulating, with products that offered compelling benefits to meaningfully large markets whose needs I understood. I had developed a strong foundation in my field and was fortunate to find great men- tors and partners along the way. I developed close relation- ships with key opinion leaders, too, and often my partners and I quickly recognized the advantages of new technologies we believed would interest customers. This foresight repeatedly enabled our early entrance into emerging markets. The teams I assembled included highly motivated people with diverse backgrounds and complementary skill sets. We tried to create environments where everyone could thrive.”

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Tame-Mongoose-Genomics-Entrepreneur-ebook/dp/B0CNKX1HPH

This kind of descriptiveness is pervasive throughout Can’t Tame a Mongoose: Memoir of a Genomics Entrepreneur. As someone who speaks through writing and film, it immediately brings to mind dreams of how I could adapt core concepts in Can’t Tame a Mongoose for the screen. Rose may not be Nolan and Oppenheimer with respect to Can’t Tame a Mongoose, but once you fully dive into the read, he proves very hard to shake. That’s a commendable skill, and something that makes the story worth telling — aside from its obvious, external and factual merits.

Colin Jordan