Guy Kawasaki? Who’s that guy?
He is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. 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, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. He studied at Lolani School and graduated in the year 1972. That school was not as well known as its rival, Punahou, but he got fantastic and formative education there. After graduating in high school, he spent his college years at the Stanford University and graduated in the year 1976. He was a psychology major which he thought the easiest major he could find. Guy Kawasaki made a name for himself at Apple in the 1980s as the evangelist who helped launch the Macintosh computer. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has tested and proven his ideas with dozens of startup companies. He is the author of over half a dozen business books, including Rules for Revolutionaries, Selling the Dream and How to Drive Your Competition Crazy. Kawasaki is the definition of an entrepreneur and he shares that knowledge and experience in his books. One of the books he wrote was, The Art of the Start. His goal in this book is for an entrepreneur with a great idea to take this advice and get started. If the title of the book wasn’t evidence enough, Kawasaki advocates starting as the first and most critical step. Too much time is wasted planning, and not doing, so this book is the catalyst that will cause entrepreneurs who are stuck on the starting line to finally enter the race. Kawasaki provides eleven chapters, each of which begins with the phrase “The Art of” and followed by the concept covered in that chapter. Each concept covered is a corner-stone for any entrepreneur in the early stages of development. Topics covered range from positioning yourself in the market to crafting and pitching a business plan to raising capital or funding the operation internally to finding a partner and creating cash flows. It’s all topped off with Kawasaki’s lesson in ethics and the karmic scoreboard. Kawasaki exploits the fact that not all entrepreneurs are starting up small businesses in their garage. Some are current employees for large corporations, and need instructions on internal start-ups, the not-so-well-known second side of entrepreneurship. The information provided is truly priceless for any potential entrepreneur on the cusp of something great. Kawasaki writes in a down to earth tone, with an attitude of “let’s forget the foolishness and talk about what really works.” Kawasaki describes his own writing style as cutting through the theories, and getting down to real world tactics. The information is portrayed as though it is coming from a friend who wishes to see you conquer the world. Contrast that to a multitude of “how-to” guides written with business jargon from a know-it-all who’s talking down to you. Mr. Kawasaki wrote in that book the top 10 things that the managers should know. Here are those:
1. Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. The number one attribute is persistence. So as cliché as it may sound – don’t ever give up. If you truly believe in something, spend your life trying to make it happen.
2. If your product takes off in an unintended market, put more eggs into that basket rather than resisting this opportunity because it’s not how you wanted your product to be used.
3. Although a business plan should be written for multiple reasons, it is not the single tool that will land the big investors. You, and your art of pitching, are what sell the product. Practice portraying your meaningful message personally instead of pouring over a word document scratching out a boring business plan.
4. At the same time you want to master the art of collecting capital, realize how difficult that will be. At some early stage in the game you are going to be forced to buckle down, raise money, and fund the operation yourself.
5. Find a partner – not executive partners or people that you employ to help you, but another business that can execute some of your work load (preferably better than you can do yourself).
6. After success is achieved, giving back is the most beautiful thing one can do. A selfless donation from excess profits will pay dividends on the karmic scoreboard.
7. Don’t try it alone. An entrepreneurial endeavor is not run by a one man wrecking crew. Find those with the same passions as you, and tackle this together.
8. You are in control – you started this business and its fate is in your hands. The market and other outside factors may put you off course, but you control what steps the business will take to react to it.
9. If you are going to do anything in the world, do it for the right reasons. Don’t do it for the money or the fame, do it to make the world a better place, and do it because you love it.
10. It’s all about the art of starting (go figure). Getting up and doing, and not wasting too much time planning what you’re going to do it the essence of entrepreneurship. If you follow the steps in this book, the plan begins to form itself as you execute each step of action.
In that book, Mr. Kawasaki revealed his top 5 list for starting a business. And the first one was “MAKE A MEANING”. This is what we have discussed in our Technopreneurship2 class. Our Facilitator had provided a audio visual presentation for us showing Mr. Guy Kawasaki as he was talking about this topic. It was just a short talk. After watching, our facilitator instructed us to write a short review of what we learned after watching the video. Then after that activity we had a small discussion about the subject matter. Entrepreneurship is not all about making money. According to him “if you make a meaning, you make money but if you make money, you don’t make the meaning”. In making a meaning as he noted, the following should be put into consideration as well:
- Increase the quality of life.
Make people more productive of their lives. Change the lives of your customers. The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life is an important concept in the field of international development, since it allows development to be analyzed on a measure broader than standard of living. Within development theory, however, there are varying ideas concerning what constitutes desirable change for a particular society, and the different ways that quality of life is defined by institutions therefore shapes how these organizations work for its improvement. Here are some tips to improve your quality of life :
1. Think daily. Meditate. Call it what you will but spend time each day alone with your thoughts. This surely isn’t the first time you’ve heard that advice, there’s a reason for that! There’s also a reason that this is the first step in the list. Doing the other things in the remaining nine suggestions without taking some time to reflect almost negates any benefit gained elsewhere.
2. Get in the zone. Not only will these be your most productive moments in life (the 20% of the time where you accomplish 80% of the results) but it will be a boost to your confidence that will alter the decisions you make elsewhere in life.
3. Make it a point to do something bold every day. Step out of your comfort zone, leave the routine even if for only a second. This might mean talking to someone that you generally wouldn’t talk to or starting a project that you feel intimidated by. There is no need to plan it in advance–though that might help at times, usually though you’ll find a point during the day when ‘two paths diverge in the woods’ and you have the change to take the one less travelled by. Take it.
4. Learn something new. Pick a topic, preferably something you know nothing about and learn something about it. A good source of inspiration for this can be the newspaper or Wikipedia. It helps to retain it if you have time to make a note of what you learned or explain it to someone else, but even if you don’t get the chance to do that, your brain will thank you for the new patterns you introduce as you learn something new every day.
5. Debate something. If you think you know about something, nothing will prove it like arguing it with someone who’s smarter or more informed than you. Find a friend you can debate with who has ideas that are different from your and who won’t be offended by debating them–this is easier said than done, but it can provide you with some of the best mental stimulation possible.
6. Spend time with a child. If you have one, consider yourself lucky, if you don’t, I bet you have friends who would be happy to let you borrow theirs for a few minutes (or hours). It doesn’t matter what age they are, children see the world entirely different. Look at it from their eyes. Be their hero. Appreciate what they appreciate. Enjoy the simple things again. You’ll love it and they’ll love you for it.
7. Go outside. If you don’t naturally spend time outside, make it a point to do it more. There’s something about the expanse of the sky that will bring out your inner philosopher.
8. Recognize what makes you happy. Reflect on the parts of your day that bring you real satisfaction. Everyone is working towards something, but what makes you happy now? Rate your overall satisfaction with your quality of life for each day on a scale of 1 to 10, focus on the things that happened that pushed the number higher rather than what made it lower. Try to incorporate more of what made you happy yesterday into today.
9. Stop broken thoughts. Broken thoughts are those subtle patterns that aren’t quite big enough to fall into the bad habits category. This means that despite their harmful effect they often escape under the radar. Broken thoughts often take the form of justifications. Examples? I’m just going to leave my dish here by the sink, I’ll wash it later (when you know your spouse will end up washing it). I’m bookmarking this article to read later (how often do you ever go back and read old bookmarked articles?). I’ll hang my shirt up later (when you know it will be there for a week before you touch it).
You, as the manager, should think of the people that will benefit from your business. They must be your first priority. Increasing the quality of life means changing the way people are doing. Think of some ways which will make the life of the people, your customers, easier. You have to develop the motivation of changing the world, contributing something good in the world.
- Right a Wrong.
Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. Always see the positive side of everything. We can’t avoid making wrong but there is always a way to make that wrong right. It’s about finding solutions to the problems our world is facing right now.
- Prevent the end of something good.
Preventing the end of something good means protecting what the world has provided for us to have a good life. The earth has provided us so many good resources but sadly some of us are abusing it. We must prevent the end of these good resources. Let’s help those advocates who promote the preservation of our resources. It’s about time to make a big move to increase the quality of life. It is not nice to see something being ruined or changed, especially if you really see that something as beautiful.
The starting point of a business usually defines where your business is heading to. You can start at worst and find your business went into bankruptcy. But you have the choice of starting good and find yourself maintaining it and later achieve your success. You should try your best to make sure that your goal of achieving money in starting a business is only secondary. You should take into consideration certain things that you can use to achieve a long-term growth. We must stay dedicated to whatever you are starting and it must mean something that will provide for the betterment of the world. Your dedication should not come from money, or squashing the competition, it should come from making the world a better place and if you strive to do that you will have a meaning to keep you focused.
- Tom Head
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