Guy Kawasaki.
“That must be the same guy who wrote the Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Series,” I thought.
I found out later, that no, no it’s not. Thank God. The last thing the world needs is another self-promoting author that doesn’t know anything.
When I first started reading Guy’s blog last April, I was a cynic. I’ve read so many books and blogs that turned out to be fads. Hype. Simply a regurgitation of self-help jargon written by the next slickster in line.
Over time, my cynic wall melted away. Why? Because Guy’s the real-deal.
How did I find out that Guy was genuine? Well, I didn’t find out based off reading his articles, which are raw, well-written and hilarious. I mean, anyone can write a blog. That doesn’t validate a person’s intentions, or their character. Rather, this came from my experience when I contacted a site that I never heard of, alltop.com. I emailed alltop’s main contact email, and Guy Kawasaki himself promptly returned my email. He was genuine, to the point, sharp, funny and helpful. I had no clue he was behind alltop. “He’s everywhere,” I thought.
And he is. Guy Kawasaki is everywhere. And he’s accessible. And that’s why I’m a fan of Guy Kawasaki. He’s real. He’s genuine. And most importantly, he has mind-opening advice to entrepreneurs and everyone, really.
His latest book, “Reality Check,” is a massive compilation of Guy’s best blog posts. All of them, organized in a logical fashion covering the topics: starting a venture, raising money, planning, executing, innovating, marketing, selling, evangelizing, communicating, beguiling, competing, hiring, firing, working and doing good (Web H2.0).
Within those topics lay many more sub-sections. Sections that focus on specifics. Not on concepts and theoretical terms found in text books, but rather pragmatic actions that anyone can implement into their lives (the zen of presentations, emailing, and a lot more).
The only part where I disagree with Guy is: “Venture Capital Aptitude Test (VCAT)”
He believes young people should not be VC’s. I actually believe the exact opposite to be true. Old people are horrible VC’s. They don’t return calls or emails. They don’t review business plans (they’d rather golf). And they don’t watch your presentation (they’d rather be napping).
If you need some more proof, go check out TheFunded
Also, check out Guy’s rating at Garage Technology Ventures. There’s a bit of irony for you 
Still, I wouldn’t take that place too seriously. Some of those people have issues.
Nothing personal, but old people just don’t get it. I always find myself at Starbucks explaining to old people what web 2.0 is, what digg is, what social media is, what network effects are, what SEO is, how to leverage your facebook friends, the do’s/don’t of myspace, blogging intricacies, how to get 1,300 hits in a week, how to make your YouTube videos viral…. and the list goes on.
Simply put, old people just don’t get it. Even Lord Zuckerberg of Facebook says so, here’s the article where Zuckerberg recently emphasized the importance of young, technical people. “Young people are just smarter,” he says. Maybe Guy’s right if you’re in the clean tech, medical or brick-and-mortar business. But when it comes to post web media, he’s flat out wrong. If you try to apply concepts for a web startup that worked for you in the past, you’ll probably drive your portfolio companies deep into the ground.
I do agree with his reasoning that consultants, investment bankers and accountants are horrible VC’s. These guys don’t get it either. They may be even worse than old people.
I’d hire a high school dropout with a huge digital following over any Goldman Sachs Analyst. I promise.
What is unfortunate, though, is that young, bright and potentially great VC’s are pigeonholed into Guy’s stereotype of young VC’s. And young, bright people are faced with the near-impossible chance of getting into the VC sector. If we had more young VC’s in the field that actually had to prove themselves, that would scrap for deals, that would treat entrepreneurs with respect, I think TheFunded.com would be a lot less hectic.
Furthermore, Guy contradicts himself when he says, “Forget the ‘proven’ team” in Chapter 22. He goes on to reason that experience really isn’t valuable. “Hire young, cheap, and hungry people,” he says. He again cracks down on old people at the end of his book in “My Hindsights in Life.”
So why doesn’t this concept apply to the VC profession, as well? I mean, he reasons that young people are the world’s bread-winners. He reasons that experience is overrated in entrepreneurship. So why doesn’t he believe the concept should also apply to venture capital?
Don’t know. I probably never will; I’m writing to all the young VC hopefuls (whether in VC or desiring to be in VC) when I say, stick to your convictions, do what you love and have the best interests of entrepreneurs in your heart. Do this, and you will succeed.
Another area I had a problem with was “Don’t get married too soon.” That seems to be the world’s advice right now: Don’t get married; focus on yourself. “If you decide to get married, just keep in mind that you need to accept the person for what he or she is right now.” Oh really? Before I got down on one knee in front of a stadium of people, I didn’t think of that (yea…I’m that guy). So, don’t get married when you’re young, eh? That’s cool for a lot of people. But it’s an opinion. And opinions are like butts. Everyone has one and they all stink–yes, even mine.
Switching gears now, a section I liked was “How I built a Web Site for $12,107.99″ I will argue that it can be done for much less. I launched VentureDig.com with $6.95; however, I had to build it myself instead of hiring someone else to do it. I also didn’t have to buy the domain name for $3,000, which was Guy’s figure for buying alltop.com.
Still, my opinions aside, Reality Check is a great book with very insightful wisdom. I found myself literally laughing out loud in public. And I don’t do that. The range of topics he uncovers is massive. If I was an entrepreneurship professor, I’d throw away the traditional textbook and replace it with Reality Check. If you’re going to try and teach entrepreneurship, you may as well pair it with a text that mirrors the field’s philosophy: action, humor, authenticity, hard-work, passion, style, integrity, genius and fun! That’s what Reality Check is, and that’s what Guy represents.
Buy or Sell? Buy
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
While vacationing in Samara, Costa Rica a friend lent me Guy’s The Art of the Start. Call it the Law of Attraction on crack, but simply going for it led to more and more opportunities.
Paid for my vacation consulting and pin pointed some unmet needs. From there through new contacts I had the opportunity to speak at a dot tv event. This is all truly due to reading his book.
On a side note… what age are you referring to as “old” VC’s?
Scott, great comments. I’ve only recently started paying attention to GK. I’ve known ‘about’ him for years, but only recently started listening to what he has to say. Turns out, some of it is solid gold. Although I do agree that being ‘young’ is a good thing – at some times, and pretty bad at others. In VC, i’d aim for ‘youngish’. Certainly they need to understand the things you decribe above.
And that goes for every business, not just ‘net companies. If you don’t deeply understand the internet, one of your competitors will, and they will take your customers. The End. That is not a good scenario for a VC.
I don’t think that one should assign a number to being “old.” I actually wrote what I consider old in the first draft; however deleted it because I got too long-winded.
When I think “old,” I think of people that live a sedentary life. Old grey-beards that hoard their money from one previous success. They brush off new trends as unworthy, they stick their nose up at new technology, and they treat people poorly.
If you’re reading this post and wondering, “crap, am I old?” Just ask yourself, (i) do I constantly learn new things? (ii) And, do I have an advanced understanding of technology TODAY? (not 20 years ago; TODAY). I don’t consider Guy old, for instance.
Scott, while I love your sentiment that sometimes old people just don’t get it, especially with technology that changes daily, you are missing the importance of experience. I wrote a post today that talks about how “old people” need to listen to Gen Y when making hiring and compensation decisions and often times they don’t. I totally understand why you say that old VCs don’t get it but I think that a lot of value that VC’s bring is their experience with being entrepreneurs or IB’s who really really have a lot of experience knowing the numbers…
Not sure if this rambling made sense but I hope you got what I’m sayin…
@misshsplace I understand what you’re saying. But in both my review and the book, experience can be a violent liability as much as it can be an asset. Like the Greek mythological character of Icarus, where the protagonist made wings out of wax(asset) and flew too close to the sun, causing them to melt. So too is the concept of experience in the world of startups.
Would an old, experienced person launch something as seemingly absurd as facebook, myspace, youtube or even google? (Google faced an extremely conglomerate, competitive search engine market at that time). Really, who knows? All I know is that all of them were young when they launched those ideas.
Sounds interesting. I will try and read it, if I ever have time. I strongly disagree with the “don’t get married” part. I think that is a terrible advice but “get married” is just as bad.
That is something that you don’t plan for. It just happens. One day you are thinking I never want to get married, the next day, you meet someone and realize that life has more meaning and there is more to it than just work and success. All of a sudden you realize you can’t live without her.
But if you are going to put your business ahead of your family then definitely don’t get married and enjoy all your money ALONE
As I mentioned at VentureDig, I really enjoyed the post and I commented on it on a recent post at my blog (shameless plug): http://marktomarket.typepad.com/marktomarket/2008/11/path-to-becoming-a-vc.html. Two things that come to mind here … 1) I don’t understand the whole “getting married young” discussion. I admitedly haven’t read the book, so I don’t know what he says about it (I really don’t see the relevance either), but this is a tough thing to just throw out in a broad statement. It’s like some of the other commenters talking about “what does ‘old’ mean?” What is too young to get married or too old? This is a personal decision that is different for each person based on their circumstances and personality. I know a guy who is almost 30 and had no business getting married the way he did and I know others like myself who got married right out of college and not only was it the smartest decision I ever made, but I would never regret it or do it differently. It’s just kind of a ridiculous claim, in my opinion, that people have to be a certain age or whatever to get married. Sounds like Guy might be trying to translate his personal experience into broad advice for everyone else’s. 2) On the comment about I-bankers and consultants being good VC’s … I agree that many bankers haven’t made good VC’s because honestly there is no linkage between the two businesses, but people think they are very similar. I comment on that discussion in my post linked above, but I disagree on consultants, or at least some of them. Maybe it’s because I come from a consulting background, but I can tell you that the very nature of consulting is figuring out ways businesses negotiate challenges to acheive growth – that is exactly what you have to do in a start-up. Sure, there are definitely differences between the large consulting environment and a start-up, but the lessons learned definitely translate, which again, I talk about on my blog. Awesome points, Scott!
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Hey Scott – we’ve connected before. What Guy had to write about young wannabe VCs made me squirm. And this is despite the fact that I was part of the founding team at the $20M student-run University Venture Fund where we invested in great companies and achieved two billion dollar IPOs on the NASDAQ. Our record is better than many of the well-known venture funds in Silicon Valley. Nevertheless, I think the model that works best is old guys investing in young guys. I don’t think it works that well when old guys invest in other old guys. We made it work as young guys investing in young guys but I suspect we’re the black swan of venture investing.
As Heidi Klum says “one day your in, and the next day your out”. It’s time for the young, fresh minds of America to take their place in the business world.
And your response to “not get married to soon” was insightful and correct. Why put an age on love?