A needed “Reality Check” for entrepreneurs

I first met Guy Kawasaki some 20 years ago. He probably doesn’t remember it, but he was giving a presentation out on Long Island and I was working at Hofstra University at the time. Guy was already famous at that point for being the first ever “product evangelist” in the computer industry. As usual, it was a great presentation, even though I no longer remember what it was about. Maybe I was just impressed that someone from fabled Silicon Valley could be bothered coming to some podunk town on the east coast.

And Guy was as approachable then as he is now. That’s likely one of the factors that has given him such a long and varied tenure in the industry. He’s a smart guy willing to share his advice with those who would benefit from it. If that’s not a noble goal, I don’t know what is. OK, plus Guy is an entertaining read. You never feel like you’re being lectured or preached to. He’s also one of the best keynote speakers you’ll ever see. He spoke at the MySQL User conference two years ago, and it remains one of the best keynotes we’ve ever had. Whatever Guy charges, he’s worth it. Especially if you can get a big corporate sponsor to pay.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, Guy’s published a collection of his best essays from his blog How to Change the World in the form of a book called “Reality Check.”

Here’s the quick summary: Buy the book; it’s worth its weight in gold. (OK, at 450 pages, it’s a heavy book, so maybe it’s worth its weight in designer dark chocolate, which is still pretty darned valuable.) For anyone who works in a startup or has entrepreneurial aspirations inside of a larger company, this is a no-brainer. The book costs $30 and but you can get it for less than $20 at Amazon. Think about it. You can barely get coffee and a bagel for that price in Silicon Valley.

The book covers some of the best items from his blog, categorized into themes like starting a company, raising money, business planning, innovation, marketing, schmoozing, management, hiring and firing and more. It’s not a bunch of high-falutin’ theories either. It’s hard lessons learned by working with hundreds of entrepreneurs. Guy is also a player coach, having built four startup companies and served on the boards of ten companies. So it’s practical advice rather than academic theory. And even though it’s practical, it’s still entertaining. You won’t find the top 10 lies of VCs or the top 11 lies of entrepreneurs in any other book. And I doubt you’ll read either of those pieces and not learn something either about yourself or about how you conduct your business. With more than 90 essays (including some great Q&A pieces) if you heed just a fraction of the advice in this book, it will pay for itself tens if not hundreds of times over. How’s that for a compelling ROI?

I don’t know how it is that Guy manages to do everything he’s doing. He’s a prolific blogger, founder of the new Web site Alltop.com, frequent speaker, writer, investor, hockey player, you name it. Maybe he’s got a twin brother Carmen who helps him get it all done? If so, I hope he’s working on the Kindle version of “Reality Check.”