REFERENCE CHANNELS

Book Review: Rules for Revolutionaries
by Guy Kawasaki

This is NOT the kind of book you’d find being taught in most colleges. It’s a bit rough, isn’t loaded with pretty prose or complex academic justifications. In other words, it goes right for the point.

Starting a company that could be great is not an orderly business. You may know that you’re going to do it, but once you commit for the ride, it’s like lowering yourself onto a bronco as the rodeo chute opens. This book can help you deal with the unexpected twists and turns, giving you a better shot to make it to the end of the ride.

Author, Guy Kawasaki, has lived it. As the former "chief evangelist" for the Apple MacIntosh and the founder/CEO of Garage.com, a development and funding source for start-up companies, he knows a lot about what it takes to break the mold of "but everybody does it that way" and succeed. He’s not shy about sharing things that didn’t work out the way he thought they would, either. For example, he quotes himself, upon being asked to interview for the Chief Executive Officer position at Yahoo!, "It’s too far to commute. And how can you make a business out of a search engine?"

The book is divided in three major sections, Create Like A Good, Command Like a King and Work Like a Slave.

Great information from this book includes:

• How to think differently! Kawasaki briefly touches on both long contemplation of a situation and the sudden "Eureka!" bolt-from-the-blue-sky, then has a compact set of advice on how to systematically change the way you think about how things have always been done. Think differently and you can solve problems more quickly, less expensively or better.
• How can you tell whether you have the opportunity to work with a great team? Guy discusses what great teams have in common. They need strong leaders who won’t be beaten down by experts, company management or cowards who are afraid that the great new product will never sell. They need people who are absolutely committed to the project: idealistic, busy and often uncredentialed! Teams are small, usually less than 50 people. And they do not have gorgeous offices with lots of space. Great teams tend to be packed too tightly together in a small space with lousy furniture – and a tremendous sense of being in it all together! If you’ve ever been concerned that your team can’t put together a great product because you don’t have all of the resources your competitors have available, you’ll want to read this section :-)
• Get the product OUT! Kawasaki summarizes this as, "Don’t worry, be crappy." The idea is to get the product to the market and then, like Microsoft, keep constantly improving it. If you wait to perfect it, a number of bad things can happen. You can lose the advantage of being first to market with it. Your strategic partners can lose faith or you can run out of cash.
• Keep improving it, but do it for the right people. Respond to what your customers want.

One of my favorite sections of this book is Chapter 6 "Avoid Death Magnets." These are the things that you’re drawn to, that you believe in, the things that can kill your business, slowly or quickly. There’s the self confidence that you’ll stay in business because "Our product sucks less." Or that the budget is more important than any part of the company and can’t be changed. This can help you spot your own death magnets – and get around them. Other favorite areas are the exercises that he suggests. Most of them are fun, like "The next time a telemarketer calls you at home, ask for his phone number and tell him that you’ll call him at home that night." Best, these exercises make you think about the way things currently are, and how you can change them for the better.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a book with practical advice that can really help you change the way you approach problems, this is packed with good information. If you’re looking for thud factor (how much your desk shakes when you drop the book on it) give it a pass. It’s going on my bookshelf, where I can reach for inspiration or when I need help to cut through my own "bozo-osity."

I rate this book $$$$.

-Cindy Nemeth-Johannes

ABC's rating system: $ - A few useful items; $$ - Some good content; $$$ - Well balanced and worthwhile; $$$$ - Recommend highly; $$$$$ - Excellent! Buy it now