Synopses & Reviews
Fully revised and expanded for the first time in a decade, this is Guy Kawasaki's classic, bestselling guide to launching and making your new product, service, or idea a success.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, small-business owner, intrapreneur, or not-for-profit leader, there's no shortage of advice on topics such as innovating, recruiting, fund raising, and branding. In fact, there are so many books, articles, websites, blogs, webinars, and conferences that many startups get paralyzed, or they focus on the wrong priorities and go broke before they succeed.
The Art of the Start 2.0 solves that problem by distilling Guy Kawasaki's decades of experience as one of the most hardworking and irreverent strategists in the business world. Guy has totally overhauled this iconic, essential guide for anyone starting anything. Its 64 percent longer than version 1.0 and features his latest insights and practical advice about social media, crowdfunding, cloud computing, and many other topics.
Guy understands the seismic changes in business over the last decade: Once-invulnerable market leaders are struggling. Many of the basics of getting established have become easier, cheaper, and more democratic. Business plans are no longer necessary. Social media has replaced PR and advertising as the key method of promotion. Crowdfunding is now a viable alternative to investors. The cloud makes basic infrastructure affordable for almost any new venture.
The Art of the Start 2.0 will show you how to effectively deploy all these new tools. And it will help you master the fundamental challenges that have not changed: building a strong team, creating an awesome product or service, and facing down your competition.
As Guy likes to say, Entrepreneur is a state of mind, not a job title.” His book will help you make your crazy ideas stick, through an adventure that's more art than science the art of the start.
Review
“An informative, concise guide from one of Americas most influential and, yes, enchanting entrepreneurs.”
—Kirkus Reviews “Kawasaki provides insights so valuable we all wish wed had them first.”
—Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence “The power of a really good idea to transform the marketplace and individual customer experiences is huge, and this book offers a wealth of insights to help businesses and entrepreneurs tap into that potential.”
—Sir Richard Branson “Guy has written the small-business manifesto. There is nothing more important for entrepreneurs than to enchant their customers, and Guy explains exactly how to do this.”
—Jane Applegate, small-business management expert and author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business “Guy teaches you how to pull gems from peoples hearts and minds and how to become an effective practitioner of lifes crucial domains. Clearly, I taught him well.”
—Dr. Phil Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology, Stanford University “Whether youre a C-level executive looking to lead people more effectively, a mid-level manager hoping to stand out, or a marketer trying to better spread your organizations message, youll find Enchantment absolutely, well, enchanting.”
—Jack Covert, 1-800-CEO-READ "Read this book to create a company as enchanting as Apple."
—Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple
"The best overall treatise on interpersonal relationships since Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People."
—Michael Gartenberg, research director, Gartner
"You feel it when you drive a BMW, touch an Apple iPad, shop in a Sephora store, or buy shoes from Zappos. Kawasaki reveals how you can deliver the same enchanting experiences as these famous brands."
—Robert Scoble, Rackspace videoblogger
Review
“An informative, concise guide from one of America’s most influential and, yes, enchanting entrepreneurs.”
—Kirkus Reviews “Kawasaki provides insights so valuable we all wish we’d had them first.”
—Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence “The power of a really good idea to transform the marketplace and individual customer experiences is huge, and this book offers a wealth of insights to help businesses and entrepreneurs tap into that potential.”
—Sir Richard Branson “Guy has written the small-business manifesto. There is nothing more important for entrepreneurs than to enchant their customers, and Guy explains exactly how to do this.”
—Jane Applegate, small-business management expert and author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business “Guy teaches you how to pull gems from people’s hearts and minds and how to become an effective practitioner of life’s crucial domains. Clearly, I taught him well.”
—Dr. Phil Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology, Stanford University“Whether you’re a C-level executive looking to lead people more effectively, a mid-level manager hoping to stand out, or a marketer trying to better spread your organization’s message, you’ll find Enchantment absolutely, well, enchanting.”
—Jack Covert, 1-800-CEO-READ "Read this book to create a company as enchanting as Apple."
—Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple
"The best overall treatise on interpersonal relationships since Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People."
—Michael Gartenberg, research director, Gartner
"You feel it when you drive a BMW, touch an Apple iPad, shop in a Sephora store, or buy shoes from Zappos. Kawasaki reveals how you can deliver the same enchanting experiences as these famous brands."
—Robert Scoble, Rackspace videoblogger
Review
Praise for the original edition of The Art of the Start:
"A successful entrepreneur requires three things: a garage, an idea, and this book - Guy's irrepressible guide to the raw essentials of life in a young company."
—Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital
"This is a delightful, complete, and consummately practical entrepreneur's handbook. Every person who wants to start a business should read it."
—Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma
"Anyone trying to change the world should read The Art of the Start."
—Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America
Synopsis
More uncommon common sense from the bestselling author of The Art of the Start.
In Silicon Valley slang, a “bozo explosion” is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity. As Guy Kawasaki puts it, “If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don’t make sense” . . . it’s time for a reality check.
For nearly three decades, Kawasaki has earned a stellar reputation as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and irreverent pundit. His 2004 bestseller, The Art of the Start, has become the most acclaimed bible for small business. And his blog is consistently one of the fifty most popular in the world.
Now, Kawasaki has compiled his best wit, wisdom, and contrarian opinions in handy book form. From competition to customer service, innovation to marketing, he shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices. He explains, for instance:
• How to get a standing ovation
• The art of schmoozing
• How to create a community
• The top ten lies of entrepreneurs
• Everything you wanted to know about getting a job in Silicon Valley but didn’t know who to ask
Provocative, useful, and very funny, this “no bull shiitake” book will show you why readers around the world love Guy Kawasaki.
Synopsis
Kawasaki--entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and irreverent pundit, and author of the bestselling "The Art of the Start"--has compiled his best wit, wisdom, and contrarian opinions in this work that shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices.
Synopsis
"Don't even think about trying to launch a startup without reading Guy Kawasaki's Reality Check." -BizEd For a quarter of a century, in his various guises as an entrepreneur, evangelist, venture capitalist, and guru, Guy Kawasaki has cast an irreverent eye on the dubious trends, sketchy theories, and outright foolishness of what so often passes for business today. Too many people frantically chase the Next Big Thing only to discover that all they've made is the Last Big Mistake.
Reality Check is Kawasaki's all-in-one guide for starting and operating great organizations-ones that stand the test of time and ignore any passing fads in business theory. This indispensable volume collects, updates, and expands the best entries from his popular blog and features his inimitable take on everything from effective e-mailing to sucking up to preventing "bozo explosions."
Synopsis
Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes skeptics and cynics into believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it’s more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques. Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions.
Synopsis
Fully revised and updated for the first time in a decade, this is Guy Kawasaki's iconic, bestselling guide for startups of all kinds. It is required reading in entrepreneurship courses around the world, and this tenth-anniversary edition features the latest wisdom about social media, crowdfunding, cloud computing, and many other topics. Whether you're an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, or not-for-profit leader, there's no shortage of advice on topics such as writing a business plan, recruiting, raising capital, and branding. In fact, there are so many books, articles, and websites that many startups get bogged down to the point of paralysis, or they focus on the wrong priorities and go broke before they discover their mistakes.
The Art of the Start solves that problem by distilling Guy Kawasaki's decades of experience as one of the most original and irreverent strategists in the business world. Since late 2004 it has been the essential guide for anyone starting anything, from a multinational corporation to a church group.
From raising money to hiring the right people, from defining your positioning to creating a brand, from driving buzz to buzzing the competition, this book will guide you through an adventure that's more art than science the art of the start.
About the Author
Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva (an online graphic design service)and an executive fellow at the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple. He is also the author of
APE, What the Plus!, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. You can visit www.guykawasaki.com for more information, and follow him on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn (along with 8 million others).