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"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki

Written by: Kevin Lee

Article Overview: Personally recommended to me by Roger Pierce of BizLaunch and a must have for entrepreneurs! Rating: 5/5

"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki

Before reading "The Art of the Start", I had the preconceived notion that all business books were nothing more than motivational "fluff" that inundated readers with a small number of repetitive ideas. However, Guy Kawasaki's "The Art of the Start" easily dispels that stereotype and actually proves to be both an enlightening and entertaining read at just over 200 pages. Kawasaki is able to impart valuable business and life lessons through personal experience, pop culture, and quotes by famous individuals and by introducing fresh insights at every chapter. For instance, the chapter on The Art of Positioning begins with Wile E. Coyote saying "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote...Genius. I am not selling anything, nor am I working my way through college, so let's get down to cases. You are a rabbit, and I am going to eat you for supper. Now don't try to get away! I am more muscular, more cunning, faster, and larger than you are...and I'm a genius. Why, you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten. So, I'll give you the customary two minutes to say your prayers" [The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)]. Kawasaki uses the movie excerpt to explain how "Wile E. Coyote understands positioning better than most entrepreneurs: He's a coyote, and he's going to eat the rabbit for lunch. Organizations should position themselves with comparable clarity by explaining exactly what it is they do" (29 & 30).

I believe this book will not only benefit aspiring entrepreneurs or existing business owners, but anyone who works or simply wants to become a better person.

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - According to Guy Kawasaki, he says "you should only hire and keep people that you'd hustle over to and engage in a conversation...Life is too short to work with people you don't naturally like-especially in a young, small organization" ("The Art of the Start" pg 112). I think the reverse is also true and I wouldn't want to work for anyone I didn't like or want to talk to if I saw him/her outside of the office. In addition, Kawasaki also says "Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players...This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies. If there is one thing a CEO must do, it's hire a management team that is better than he is" ("The Art of the Start" pg 101). Kawasaki's quote is definitely in favor of hiring the ambitious worker, but do most CEO's even have the humility to admit that someone is better than them?
Do you believe in "Mantra" or "Mission Statem - In the Strategic Management course I'm currently taking, my group and I were supposed to come up with an improved mission statement for the organization we're analyzing or explain why the existing one doesn't need to be revised. However, business expert and author, Guy Kawasaki says "Forget mission statements; they're long, boring, and irrelevant. No one can ever remember them-much less implement them. Instead, take your meaning and make a mantra out of it. This will set your entire team on the right course" ("The Art of the Start" 3). Which do you use for your own businesses: Mantra, Mission Statements or neither? Thanks
Re: How Much Do You Need To Start? - [quote="Evan":2ja75vay]Guy Kawasaki launched Truemors, his newest Web 2.0 company, on a budget of only $12,107.09. The biggest cost ($4,824.14) was actually legal fees. It goes to show that you don't need big budgets and venture capital funding in order to get a new company off the ground. As Guy mentions "Life is simple when you can launch a company with a credit-card level debt." The result of his guerrilla marketing campaign? 261,214 page views on the first day and a website that is now in the top 90,000 sites in Alexa.[/quote:2ja75vay] I think this is a bad example of how much is realistically needed to start a business since Guy Kawasaki is an established name/brand which helped him get those high page views.
Re: I'm Back - Hi Mal - very sorry to hear about your father as I'm sure everyone is here in the forums. I hosted an event with Guy Kawasaki last week and he said whenever someone around him dies he deletes everything in his inbox and starts fresh. He said that if something was important enough people would email him back and he hasn't lost any business because of it.
Re: Who hates cold calling? - You used the word 'confidence', which in my opinion is paramount when giving presentations. All the great presenters ooze confidence: Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin (to name but a few)


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