Can Art Of The Start 2.0 really create careers, build new brands, transform lives? Heck, that’s its sole purpose. Not only can it help budding businesses and initiatives, it does more: it blasts away dilemmas, cushy alibis and convenient excuses. It’s an all-encompassing action plan - for action-oriented readers. (Spoiler alert: the other kind of reader will be, well, disillusioned.)
As a long-time fan of Guy Kawasaki, familiar with his ideas and works, I’m glad to say that this book is nevertheless unexpectedly good. His whole trail-blazing career and his vantage point inform it and after all, he is in a league of his own. Yet Guy solves “the fundamental problem of experienced people” (that he too knows too much) by applying his unique gift of keeping it simple.
For me, the book also carries a bonus - it’s like an unwritten writing course. The text is brilliantly efficient, which is impressive, as some of the ideas have previously been set to different formats - presentation slides, FAQ’s, interviews, webinars, etc. It is so smooth and fluid, so totally succinct, that the only place The Art of the Start 2.0 could go next (2.5?) is to become an app for portable devices.
The text is also refreshingly candid. Guy repeatedly calls it what it is (vs. the artifice of PR, PC and widespread phoniness). Take for example a question about the hiring process: “Should we be honest about our startup’s weaknesses as well as strengths?”. Guy answers it like this: “Let me get this straight: you’re wondering whether you should lie to candidates, knowing that if they take the job, they’ll eventually discover that you startup sucks?”. No patience for pretense here, just the disarming truth - being no good to begin with, trying to hide it AND pretending it’s all somehow acceptable - is not acceptable. Virtually every page in the book is such a reminder to always be genuine. Much more than the title promises, that’s in fact sound life management.
The text is quite funny on every page - just Guy being his usual amusing self. Still, he has done some heavy homework, while we all try to casually copy it from him. So whoever is serious about the success of his or her project in this life, will snap out of any daydreaming, grab a pencil and make notes about their own enterprise - after every paragraph. The text of the book may flow effortlessly, but the subject matter is anything but - and the author is the dead-serious, no-nonsense, been-there-done-that voice of reason, which none of us can afford to ignore.
AOTS2.0 has convinced me that success is a ruthless numbers’ game, and that we stand only one chance in it - to play selflessly, conscientiously and passionately. It also lays out exactly how to do it. If you are willing to start something truly worthwhile, read it and re-read it; and you’ll never be naive again.
Guy Kawasaki has excelled as a marketer, entrepreneur, manager, consultant, investor, blogger, writer, speaker, publisher and evangelist of several great brands. But more than anything - and this book seals it - he is an enthusiastic enabler, a kind catalyst and a steel safety net for anyone starting - or already doing - anything earnest anywhere.
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