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Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

From Publishers Weekly

Kawasaki (Rules for Revolutionaries) draws upon his dual background as an evangelist for Apple's Macintosh computer and as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist in this how-to for launching any type of business project.

Each chapter begins with "GIST" ("great ideas for starting things"), covering a variety of facets to consider, from identifying your customer base and writing a business plan to establishing partnerships and building brand identity.

Minichapters zero in on particular jobs that will need doing, while FAQ sections address the questions readers are most likely to have: Kawasaki covers the basics in an effectively casual tone.

Much of the advice, however, consists of generic banalities—start your company's name with a letter that comes early in the alphabet, use big type in presentation slides for older businessmen with declining eyesight, and avoid writing e-mails in all capital letters—that can be found in any mediocre guide.

Fortunately, Kawasaki does rise to the occasion here and there.

He goes into great detail when it comes to raising capital and offers effective methods for sorting through the nonsense associated with interviewing prospective employees.

Product Description

What does it take to turn ideas into action?

What are the elements of a perfect pitch?

How do you win the war for talent?

How do you establish a brand without bucks?

These are some of the issues everyone faces when starting or revitalizing any undertaking, and Guy Kawasaki, former marketing maven of Apple Computer, provides the answers.

The Art of the Start will give you the essential steps to launch great products, services, and companies—whether you are dreaming of starting the next Microsoft or a not-for-profit that's going to change the world.

It also shows managers how to unleash entrepreneurial thinking at established companies, helping them foster the pluck and creativity that their businesses need to stay ahead of the pack.

Kawasaki provides readers with GIST—Great Ideas for Starting Things—including his field-tested insider's techniques for bootstrapping, branding, networking, recruiting, pitching, rainmaking, and, most important in this fickle consumer climate, building buzz.

At Apple, Kawasaki helped turn ordinary customers into fanatics.

As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has tested his iconoclastic ideas on real-world start- ups.

And as an irrepressible columnist for Forbes, he has honed his best thinking about The Art of the Start.

Art of the Start
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- Read Me First
- Causation
  - Chapter 1 The Art of Starting
    - GIST (Great Ideas For Starting Things)
    - Make Meaning
    - Make Mantra
    - Get Going
      - Think Big
      - Find A Few Soulmates
      - Polarize People
      - Design Different
        
        I Want One
        
        My Employer Couldn't (Or Wouldn't) Do It
        
        What The Hell-It's Possible
        
        There Must Be A Better Way
      - Use Prototypes As Market Research
      - Summary-the first release of a product or service
    - Define Your Business Model
      - Be Specific
      - Keep It Simple
      - Copy Somebody
      - Exercise
    - Weave A MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, And Tasks)
      - Milestones
        
        Exercise
        
        Extra Credit
      - Assumptions
      - Tasks
    - Mini-chapter: The Art Of Internal Entrepreneuring
      - Put The Company First
      - Kill The Cash Cows
      - Stay Under The Radar
      - Find A Godfather
      - Get A Separate Building
      - Give Hope To The Hopeful
      - Anticipate, Then Jump On, Tectonic Shifts
      - Build On What Exists
      - Collect And Share Data
      - Let The Vice Presidents Come To You
      - Dismantle When Done
      - Reboot Your Brain
    - FAQ (Frequently Avoided Questions)
    - Recommended Reading
- Articulation
  - The Art of Positioning
    - GIST
    - Seize The High Ground
      - Qualities
    - Niche Thyself
    - Don't Compromise On Your Name
    - Make It Personal
    - Speak "English"
    - Apply The Opposite Test
    - Cascade The Message
    - Flow With The Go
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
  - The Art of Pitching
    - GIST
    - Explain Yourself In The First Minute
      - Exercise
      - More
    - Answer The Little Man
    - Know Your Audience
    - Observe The 10/20/30 Rule
      - Ten Slides
      - Twenty Minutes
      - Thirty-Point-Font Text
      - Exercise
    - Set The Stage
    - Let One Person Do The Talking
    - Catalyze Fantasy
    - Get To One Thousand Feet And Stay There
    - Shut Up, Take Notes, Summarize, Regurgitate, And Follow Up
    - Rewrite From Scratch
    - Pitch Constantly
    - Minichapter: The Art Of Powerpointing
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
  - The Art of Writing a Business Plan
    - GIST
    - Write For The Right Reason
    - Pitch, Then Plan
    - Focus On The Executive Summary
    - Keep It Clean
    - Provide The Right Numbers
    - Write Deliberate, Act Emergent
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
- Activation
  - The Art of Bootstrapping
    - GIST
    - Manage For Cash Flow, Not Profitability
    - Build A Bottom-Up Forecast
    - Ship, Then Test
    - Forget The "Proven" Team
    - Start As A Service Business
    - Focus On Function, Not Form
    - Pick Your Battles
    - Position Against The Leader
    - Take The "Red Pill"
    - Get A Morpheus
    - Understaff And Outsource
    - Build A Board
    - Sweat The Big Stuff
    - Execute
  - The Art of Recruiting
    - GIST
    - Hire "A" Players
    - Hire "Infected" People
    - Ignore The Irrelevant
    - Use All Your Tools
    - Sell All The Decision Makers
    - Wait To Compensate
    - Interpret The Lies
    - Double-Check Your Intuition
    - Apply The Stanford Shopping Center Test
    - Define An Initial Review Period
    - Don't Assume You're Done
    - Mini-chapter: The Art Of Reference Checking
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
  - The Art of Raising Capital
    - GIST
    - Build A Business
    - Get An Intro
    - Show Traction
    - Clean Up Your Act
    - Disclose Everything
    - Acknowledge, Or Create, An Enemy
    - Tell New Lies
    - Don't Fall For The Trick Questions
    - Herd The Cats
    - Understand What You're Getting Into
    - Find Your Train Ticket
    - Minichapter: The Art Of Raising Angel Capital
    - Minichapter: The Art Of Managing A Board
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
- Proliferation
  - The Art of Partnering
    - GIST
    - Partner For "Spreadsheet" Reasons
    - Define Deliverables And Objectives
    - Ensure That The Middles And Bottoms Like The Deal
    - Find Internal Champions
    - Accentuate Strengths, Don't Cover Weaknesses
    - Cut Win-Win Deals
    - Follow With The File
    - Wait To Legislate
    - Put An "Out" Clause In The Deal
    - Get Out Of The Belly
    - Minichapter: The Art Of Schmoozing
    - Minichapter: The Art Of Using E-Mail
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
  - The Art of Branding
    - GIST
    - Create A Contagion
    - Lower The Barriers To Adoption
    - Recruit Evangelists
    - Foster A Community
    - Achieve Humanness
    - Focus On Publicity
    - Talk The Walk
    - Minichapter: The Art Of Speaking
    - Mini-Minichapter: The Art Of Designing T-Shirts
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
  - The Art of Rainmaking
    - GIST
    - Let One Hundred Flowers Blossom
    - See The Gorilla
    - Pick The Right Lead Generation Method
    - Find The Key Influencer
    - Suck Down
    - Go After Agnostics, Not Atheists
    - Make Prospects Talk
    - Enable Test Drives
    - Provide A Safe, Easy First Step
    - Learn From Rejection
    - Manage The Rainmaking Process
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading
- Obligation
  - The Art of Being a Mensch
    - GIST
    - Help Many People
    - Do What's Right
    - Pay Back Society
    - FAQ
    - Recommended Reading

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic”. — Peter Drucker

The shift from manual workers who do as they are being told — either by the task or by the boss — to knowledge workers who have to manage themselves ↓ profoundly challenges social structure …

“Managing Oneself is a REVOLUTION in human affairs.” … “It also requires an almost 180-degree change in the knowledge workers’ thoughts and actions from what most of us—even of the younger generation—still take for granted as the way to think and the way to act.” …

… “Managing Oneself is based on the very opposite realities: Workers are likely to outlive organizations (and therefore, employers can’t be depended on for designing your life), and the knowledge worker has mobility.” ← in a context

These pages are attention directing tools for navigating a world moving toward unimagined futures.

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— working something out in time (1915, 1940, 1970 … 2040 … the outer limit of your concern) — nobody is going to do it for you.

It may be a step forward to actively reject something (rather than just passively ignoring) and then figure out a coping plan for what you’ve rejected.

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