THE READER: The Art Of Start - Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki, who has never taken a computer class in his life, was in jewelry business when Apple recruited him as a software evangelist in 1983-87 and as chief evangelist in 1995 -97 in Macintosh division, which he in his own inimical style calls the largest collection of egomaniacs in the history of Silicon Valley. 

Guy Kawasaki now is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, andThe Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

In this great presentation, click here to view, he talks about his book “the art of the start” giving his point of view for the entrepreneur and startups in top ten points. I think for any one thinking of new business, or planning on taking his established business to the next level, this presentation and reading of the book will be great source of inspiration as well as starting point. Here is gist of the presentation and please don’t forget to view the video as it’s a great presentation, presented in perfect and most charming way by Guy Kawasaki.

1^st – Make Meaning

            Increase the quality of life

            Right a wrong

            Prevent the end of something good

He says there nothing worse than MBA’s and consultants for startups

2^nd – Make mantra – Mission statements in simple words for employees not great essays

3^rd – Get going

            Think Different

            Polarize people

            Find a few soul mates

4^th – Define a business model

            Be Specific

            Keep it simple

            Ask women

5^th – Weave a MAT (Milestones, assumptions, tasks)

            Milestone           “Finish Design”

            Assumptions       “Sales Calls / Day”

            Task                 “Rent an office”

6^th – Niche Thyself

7^th – Follow the 10/20/30 rule

            10 slides

            20 minutes

            30 Font size

8^th – Hire infected people

            Ignore the irrelevant

            Hire better than yourself

            Apply the shopping center test

9^th – Lower barriers to adoption

            Flatten the learning curve

            Don’t ask people to do something that you would not

            Embrace your evangelist

10^th – Seed the cloud

            Let a hundred flowers bloom

            Enable test drive

            Find the influencers

11^th – Don’t let the Bozos tie you down

            “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” Thomas Watson, Chairman IBM 1943

“This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us” Western Union Internal Memo (1876)

There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olsen, Founder, Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

“It’s too far to drive, and I don’t see how it can be a business” Guy Kawasaki when offered a job of CEO of Yahoo.
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I thank Guy Kawasaki for his support for this post.


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