Perhaps its a quick kiss on the cheek by a beautiful young woman that captures a mans heart, or a passionate exchange on a starry night in a horse-drawn carriage that marks the beginning of a life together. A kiss symbolizes emotion, electricity, excitement, and anticipation for something more in a way that the anatomical de- scription (the tightening of lip muscles held against each other) fails to capture. For the KISS Army, the word conjures the same emotions, but a very different visual. The sometimes raucous and always passionate entertainers stirred emotions, generated energy, and sparked enthu- siasm with their unorthodox concerts, which they held in small towns and cities that had never been exposed to such an out-of-mind     emotional experience. Not only did KISS elevate the concert stan- dard in venues where other larger acts didnt bother to play, it affected the standard throughout the rock-and-roll industry. Today, KISS is credited with leading the way for performers like Britney Spears and N Sync, and those who take animals on stage (as Britney did in her 2002 tour) or use pyrotechnics (as Kid Rock does) to create multisensory experiences. But it is safe to say that the impact of KISS on fans and the industry would not have happened were it not for Gene Simmons. His is a story of ambition, vision, ego, and business savvy, and just like those of other great entrepreneurs stud- ied in MBA programs, it deserves close examination to uncover the influences that shaped his career and success.     Immigration, Fascination, and Infatuation   Chaim Witz was born in 1949 in Israel and came to America with his mother at age eight. Changing his name to Gene (it was more Amer- ican than Chaim) Klein (his mothers maiden name), he assimilated into his new neighborhood-the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn- and overcame the challenges of living in a single-parent household and having only limited English skills. Gene attended yeshiva, where the first half of the day was devoted to the Old Testament, Torah studies, and Bible stories, followed by an afternoon of traditional academics, then Bible study until 9:30 P.M., and plenty of homework after that. This was young Genes routine, six days a week, and it fos- tered a disciplined lifestyle of hard work that was to characterize much of his later success. America represented many things to Gene, especially vast eco- nomic opportunity, but above all it meant entertainment. In his auto- biography, KISS and Makeup (Crown, 2001), Simmons explains, "So here I come, fresh off the plane, and theres a close-up of a mans face on the screen reading the news. I actually went around behind the fur- niture to see where the guy was. That was my first impression of tele- vision, which later bloomed into a full-fledged love affair."1 His life, and the future of rock and roll, would be forever changed on a Sunday night in 1964, when Gene and his mother sat together for their