How Guy Kawasaki Learned to Shit Like an Elephant
If you are a fan of the Mac, have ever been involved or wanted to be involved in a start up, or are a human being, you should not have missed Guy Kawasaki’s Rules For Revolutionary Marketers. Guy Kawasaki is an author, speaker, and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures an early stage Venture Capital firm. He is well known for his time at Apple during the mid-eighties, and as an Apple Fellow ten years later. In today’s session Guy walked through ten lessons from his new book “The Art of the Start”. And along the way shared a few interesting stories. Among Guy’s lessons were:
Look Beyond the Next Curve. It is easy to become trapped in the inertia of current practices. How can we make a better DOS? We’ve used it for five years, why change. A truly revolutionary idea doesn’t improve upon the current practice it proposes a whole new paradigm - Apple’s GUI to Microsoft’s DOS prompt.
Of course, this is easier said than done sometimes. Guy himself has missed a few opportunities. Back in the 90s the proto-Yahoo asked him to interview for the CEO position. Stuck in the mind-set of the personal computer, Guy couldn’t see beyond the next curve in the road, that the internet was truly a revolution. “I don’t see how this can be a viable business” he said. So, the Yahoo opportunity was passed up because of a potentially long commute and time away from family. Good reasons really, but a decision that ultimately may have cost him around two billion dollars.
Another rule was Eat Like a Bird, Shit Like an Elephant. If a human being had the metabolism of a hummingbird we would eat 65,000 calories per day. And, apparently an Elephant will relieve himself of about 165 pounds a day. So, Kawasaki’s recommendation is that entrepreneurs consume information like a bird. Read voraciously. And, not just in your area of expertise. Then, when you have truly revolutionary idea, don’t try to keep it to yourself. Be like an elephant. It is more valuable to generate broad support for the idea, than to preserve your particular advantage in the short term. According to Guy, one problem with Apple was that they ate like a bird, but shit like one too. But, apparently they’ve learned a few things over the years too.
To hear more about Kawasaki you can visit GuyKawasaki.com.
