Guy Kawasaki

January 4th, 2006

I really love this guy’s way of communicating powerful, knock you out of your rut ideas. I guess these are what he calls “reboot your brain” ideas. I often like to repeat an idea he raised during a radio interview I heard with him in San Francisco. He was being interviewed by Marty Nemko on a local NPR show about careers and the workplace. Marty asked him in particular about the value of “keeping good ideas a secret.”

I was inspired by Kawasaki’s response, which was something along the lines of “there are too many good ideas to know what to do with, and execution is all that matters.” This is a challenging way of looking at the innovation-driven business world, but I think he’s on to something. As he sees is, basically you just have to pick something you really want to see happen and go with it. OK!

I was pleased to learn recently (via Daring Fireball and then reminded by Michael Tsai) that Kawasaki has started a blog. Not only did he start the blog, he’s pumping out articles at a furious pace. Cool!

Kawasaki’s most recent article makes some good points about how to be an “intrapreneur.” That is, a really good, inventive employee of a bigger corporation. While I agree with a lot of what he says – he misses something big when he suggests that intrapreneurs should suffer artificially:

Intrapreneurs need to suffer to build cohesiveness, and you can’t suffer if your butt is sitting in a $700 Herman Miller chair.

I beg to differ! While regular employees are checking out after at most 6 or 7 hours in that Herman Miller chair, the intrapreneurs often need all-night accommodations for their tired asses. If they must suffer (and really, why should they?), then make them drink Farmer’s Brothers coffee or something.

The worst part? Kawasaki’s final point enjoins the intrapreneur to “start all over again” once they’ve made a successful product and been folded back into the corporate mainstream. At that rate, they’ll be sitting in scoliosis-inducing chairs forever!

3 Responses to “Guy Kawasaki”

  1. Beau Hartshorne Says:

    You’ll like his book: , it’s good.

  2. Beau Hartshorne Says:

    Err: http://artofthestart.com

  3. John Gruber Says:

    Cut-rate coffee? That’s much worse than cut-rate chairs.

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