Saturday, June 17, 2006
Art of the Start

Guy Kawasaki's 10 rules for entrepreneurs from this lecture

1. Aim to create meaning not money.
Money is the byproduct of doing one of these 3 things:
a) perpetuate good things b) end a bad thing c) make someone's life better

2. Jump to the next curve. Swim upstream. Change the rules of the game.
Barnes and Noble was the new standard, then came Amazon =10x improvement.

3. Don't Worry. Be Crappy.
The revolution will likely be shaky. Don't wait for the perfect world, prototype. Ship then test.

4. Churn Baby Churn.
A revolution is not a single event, it's a process. you need to constantly improve. As an entrepreneur you have to have a thick skin to negativity which makes it all the harder to listen for constructive criticism and constantly better your initiatives.

5. Polarise People.
Create something people either love or hate.

6. Niche yourself.
Offer something only you can (or will) that people are willing to pay for.
7. Make Mantra.
Not a complex mission statement created on a 2 day offsite boondoggle (see here for Dilbert parody generator). 3 or 4 words only please. AKA brand essence.

8. The 10/20/30 Rule.
10 slides.
2o mins. (in 60 min presentation, 20 mins should be presentation, 40 Q&A)
3o point font.

9. First make evangelists not sales.
create a cause. You know the drill.

10. Let a hundred flowers blossom.
Do things right and your ventures will take off in directions you never thought of - let them take on their own life. Apple never openly targetted DTP, but that was its lifeblood.