KidVenture Vol. 3
Middle Grade Fiction
Date Published: 03-30-2023
Chance, Addie and Sophie launch a new venture when they get lost in the
country and stumble on the idea of starting a corn maze business. They
quickly discover that while it’s easy to rush into a maze, finding
your way out is hard. They will need to convince an investor to fund the
venture, persuade a reluctant farmer to let them build their maze on his
corn field, and figure out a way to work with his headstrong nephew. Along
the way they will realize just how little they know about planting corn,
designing mazes and writing business plans. Through many twists and turns
—and dead ends— they will learn how to keep a partnership
together and what the true job of a leader is. There’s only one thing
harder than finding your way out of a maze: creating a maze people want to
get lost in.
EXCERPT
You might think running a successful business is like
finding your way out of a maze. You’re stuck somewhere
in the middle and you need to figure out which way to
turn. So you go look for clues, you start exploring. You try
one direction, then turn around when that one doesn’t
work, until you find a path that isn’t a dead end.
You might think that, or at least I did, but that’s not really
how it works.
Business is more complicated than that. The thing about a
maze is that there is always a way out. There has to be. It
was designed that way. And not only is there a way out,
there’s only one way out. Only one way that’s right. So
you’re pretty much guaranteed success, if only you try
hard enough.
What I found out is that being good at business, like being
good at life, is more like knowing how to build a maze than
knowing how to get out of a maze. And building a maze is
much harder than getting through one.
You see, creating something that people actually want to
get lost in is hard. Really hard. Make the labyrinth too
difficult to get out of, and they get frustrated and don’t
want to do it anymore. But make it too easy, and they will
resent the time they spent in it. You have to find how to
challenge them just right and give them the satisfaction of
finding their way out.
Get it right, and they will tell their friends and more people
will want to come to your maze. But if you get it wrong,
well then you’re just sitting on a bunch of rotting corn in an
empty field with footpaths no one wants to walk on in
nonsensical patterns.
So you have to figure out where the walls should be, and
where they should turn and not turn. You have to figure
out how many fake exits to create, and when to make the
path turn just so, to keep them hooked, and just as they
thought they were lost, they start to see a way out. And
most of all, you have to make the puzzle so interesting
that they forget for a moment they’re inside a puzzle that
someone else made.
There’s only one way out of a maze, one right answer. But
there are infinite ways to build a good maze. Getting out of
a maze is like finding the right answer to a question.
Building a maze is all about learning how to ask the right
questions. Getting people to move in the direction you
want them to move and have them think it was their idea
is a lot harder than it sounds.
That summer and fall, I became a Maze Maker. I was
twelve years old.
About the Author
KidVenture stories are business adventures where kids figure out how to
market their company, understand risk, and negotiate. Each chapter ends with
a challenge, including business decisions, ethical dilemmas and
interpersonal conflict for young readers to wrestle with. As the story
progresses, the characters track revenue, costs, profit margin, and other
key metrics which are explained in simple, fun ways that tie into the
story.
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