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The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything (精装)
by Guy Kawasaki
| Category:
Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup |
| Market price: ¥ 278.00
MSL price:
¥ 258.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start is a must-read for anyone who is working in a start-up or thinking of starting a business of any kind. |
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AllReviews |
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A reader (MSL quote), Indonesia
<2007-03-14 00:00>
I have never worked for any company in my life, entrepreneur from day one, and i have been starting up and running businesses for 18 years, with 5 companies in my track records (about 20 if i count the branches and business units, plus the failures!).
I have funs and enjoy this boook immensly. I love reading, and Guy is one of my favourites, from his early "Macintosh Way" (the wordings: something of "If you cut my flesh, i will always bleed seven colors", still in my ears), to the famous "RULES of the Revolutionaries". This is one of his bests.
It shows that after running garage.com, Guy got "matured" somehow and he has been really know the ins and outs of the start ups. The books teach a lot of truth, and honestly potray the situation.
I will complain that the book puts too much emphasis on the "venture capitalist" approach and less on other means of funding, (Venture Capital is not common in Indonesia, or most Asian countries). And there are too much ringing on the high tech industry.
BUT, even if that i don't agree with thoses issues, still most part of the books are very true and give a lot of pure gold advices.
I do a lot of Entrepreneurship seminars, and i know that you can not teach entrepreneurship by doing seminars or reading books as much as you can't learn to ride a bike or learn to swim by coming to a seminar. Yet, for those people who are going to do his own start up, this book can encourage and guide and enlight.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, those dreamers who insist to change the world and start some new business, this one is for you. Cheers, warmest regards from me at tanadisantoso-dot-com.
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Glenn Reid (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This is a truly great book. I didn't expect to get so much from it; I'm battle-hardened myself and thought I knew a lot about starting companies and thinking about product development and marketing. I'm an author myself, of two technical books (you can search for me in Amazon's author index) so I understand the process and am have pretty high standards in reading and judging books.
I've read the first 20 pages of a lot of supposedly similar books and given up on them. Time, after all, is one of the most valuable assets to an entrepreneur, and I won't have mine wasted. But with The Art of the Start I was learning and thinking on every page, and genuinely got excited about my own business by reading this book; it doesn't get much better than that.
Guy Kawasaki has a gift for getting right to the heart of an issue, in a no-nonsense way, which of course every entrpreneur needs; I'm often thinking: make your point already!
And right when you're about to call into question one of the points the author is making (and he does make some bold points that you're tempted to question) he follows it immediately with "for example..." and the examples are so compelling and clear, you immediately accede his point, change your own thinking slightly, and keep reading.
I wrote Guy Kawasaki a long email while I was on an airplane and had been reading this book, to tell him that I loved it. I normally would never do such a thing, but he points out in the book that you should always include your email address and not hide from customers, and you should answer your email, so it occurred to me that it might be okay to write to him. So I did, and he wrote back to thank me.
I've read a lot of "how-to" books on a lot of topics, from woodworking to business development, and this is one of the best ever written. I'm not sure if my review will compell you to check it out, but I thought it's worth a try. I am not one who normally recommends things, so my recommendation carries extra weight.
Get it. Read it.
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Jeff Lippincott (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
Starting a small business can be overwhelming. Many people who try experience feelings of inadequacy much like high school students feel when trying to write their first term paper for English class. If you are hoping to start a business in the future, or you are in the midst of doing so now, I highly recommend you read this book. It is light, easy to read, and informative.
The content of the book is broken into five groupings:
1. Causation (think it up)
2. Articulation (write it up)
3. Activation (implement it)
4. Proliferation (monitor it & reevaluate it)
5. Obligation (be good)
In a way, I found this book to be another one on business planning and strategic planning. However, it is presented in a different way than any other book I've read on these topics. This book reads more like an authoritative guide written by someone who has already "been there" and who did not have to do a lot of research to fill in the book's content. In comparison, many of the other books I've read seem to have been written by high school students writing their first term paper. Do yourself a favor and read this book. You will be glad you did.
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Peter Hupalo (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
The Art of The Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide For Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki gives new entrepreneurs an overview of topics they might need to understand.
Some of the topics surveyed in The Art of The Start include:
The Art of Positioning
The Art of Pitching
Writing A Business Plan
Bootstrapping
Recruiting
Raising Capital
Partnering
Branding
All entrepreneurs will find some of Kawasaki's advice useful. For example, he suggests making a bottom-up forecast, rather than a top-down forecast. Top-down forecasts usually predict a market size and arbitrarily assume the business will be able to capture some percentage of the market. That's not grounded in reality.
Kawasaki writes: Bootstrappers don't build top-down models. For them, top down = belly up! Instead, they build bottom-up models, starting with real-world variables such as
- Each salesperson can make ten phone calls a day that get through to a prospect
- There are 240 working days per year
- Five percent of the sales calls will convert within six months
- Each successful sale will bring in $240 worth of business
- We can bring on board five salespeople
- Ten calls/day x 240 days/year x 5% success rate x $240/sale x 5 salespeople = $144,000 in sales for the first year."
With positioning, Kawasaki says the entrepreneur should be positive and customer-centric. Kawasaki writes: "Entrepreneurship isn't war, so you don't describe your enterprise in warlike terms... Positioning is about what you do for your customers-not about what you want to become. Announcing that your organization is 'the leading company' is egocentric, not customer-centric. It's also impractical: How can you prove you're the leader? How can you prevent another organization from declaring that it is the leader-just like you have?"
Kawasaki, a renown public speaker, also gives some solid advice about giving presentations and pitching. He suggests you videotape yourself and says, "If you can watch it without being embarrassed, you're ready to go."
Overall, The Art of The Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide For Anyone Starting Anything is a good overview of topics you'll find useful in starting your own entrepreneurial venture.
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Stephen Bayle (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
I'm now working on my sixth startup, an affinity network. Our mantra, as Guy would call it, is "the love you take is equal to the love you make" (The End, the Beatles, Abbey Road). The last chapter of the Art of the Start, Obligation, exemplifies this philosophy.
Despite years of experience starting companies, I still had things to learn from Guy's book, and it also was a great refresher course on many of the basics, such as writing a business plan. I've recommended that our entire management team buy and read the book. I write a blog about startups, the Digitalyst,
http://digitalyst.typepad.com/digitalyst/, and it was a lot of fun for me to compare what Guy has written about, for example, the process of naming your company, with what I've posted.
I can heartily recommend Guy's other books as well, in particular, The Macintosh Way and Rules for Revolutionaries. Guy writes clearly, concisely and with a great sense of humor. He breaks up the text with useful tables, most of them very funny as well as insightful.
If you are going to read just one book about startups - and I don't think you should spend any more time reading, as Guy exhorts, start doing - this is the one to read.
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Scott King (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
Guy Kawasaki's book The Art of the Start takes a focused and practical approach to starting your own business.
The Art of the Start is a quick read with lots of valuable tips on the sometimes counter-intuitive process of getting your idea off the ground. Guy touches on a number of topics including raising capital, writing a business plan (a sane method, not the usual "explain exactly how much you will spend on staples over the course of five years" process I have seen in so many other books) and how to make your often complex idea fit into one or two concise sentences.
I was happy to see examples from Guy's past listed often throughout the book, in both "to-do" and "not-to-do" varieties.
I think that anyone who is starting their own business will be delighted to see what they are doing right, and suprised at some of the things they are getting wrong.
This book was both uplifting and humbling as I head into my second venture. Highly recommended.
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Paresh Yadav (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
Guy has done the favor again! By sharing his pains and gains generously with the readers he has shown path for a Happy, Successful and Rich startup/entrepreneurship.
It is rare for a successful person like Guy to take time to write book/s about his experience, insight and foresight with honesty. It is one think to say I was right these 10 times and other to say I was wrong these hundred times. In order to win it is not just important to do what is right but also necessary to avoid blunders and learn from some one else's mistake. The Art of the Start covers GIST of almost everything a technology startup needs to know without making the book a lengthy 'unreadable' tome. From my own experience as a small scale entrepreneur I can tell that some of the counter intuitive stuff that Guy has covered is as important as pitching, raising funds, hiring talent etc. for the long term success of the organization and the entrepreneur. If you can, please read the last chapter, Chapter 11 - The art of being Mensch first.
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Lisa Haneberg (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
I have had the pleasure of reading Art of the Start and seeing Guy Kawasaki speak. I was impressed with his ability to provide direct, amusing and effective advice.
Four weeks ago I had not heard of Guy Kawasaki. I first learned about him and his book through a book review and also picked up buzz here and there in articles, blogs and on Amazon. People seemed to think this guy Guy was fascinating so I bought the book. LOVED IT! I am not interested in venture capital or building boards so I breezed over these parts. I am very interested in how to start and build my business and helping others build theirs. Art of the Start delivers. Guy's tips and techniques are clear and stripped down to the essential must do's. There's no waste and no dull parts to get through to get the good stuff. To use Guy's word for great products - it's Gold. He's funny too, which helped my brain stay engaged.
Throughout the book, two dominant themes emerge:
1. Get on with it!
Get your product out there.
Don't over-think things, just try something.
Avoid second guessing yourself or others, if you want to start something, start it.
Be wary of paralysis by analysis.
Try many avenues.
Be open to uncommon and unknown possibilities for your business and product.
Obliterate the barriers that are keeping you from moving forward.
2. Do what you love and make meaning!
Don't worry about what is hot or trendy (by the time you know of trends it is too late anyway!). Create products and services that you love and that solve your problems.
Solve new problems, seize new opportunities, or approach a business solution in new way. Don't just build on what's already out there, build something new.
Worry about making meaning first, then making money. If you are producing what you love and it will make life better for others, the money will follow.
The best product and services are loved by their customers. To evangelize your business, you need to be passionate about and believe in what you are doing. The importance of this is paramount.
You may need to reenergize and remind yourself that the focus is on making meaning.
I've learned a lot from Guy's book and by hearing him talk. Art of the Start can help us kick-start our endeavors and improve our chances of success and satisfaction. Guy Kawasaki is one of those folks who changes the lives of the people he touches. He has changed mine and I would invite you to let him change yours.
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John Fox (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
I've been involved with many more than 250 start-ups as an employee, service provider and coach. Remember the U.S. Robotics 2400 Courier modem? Launching it was my first deal as employee #72 at my first venture, USR. Most of the lessons I learned were from the College of Hard Knocks. They came at significant personal expense: money + time. The money is easy to replace. The time... well, that's irreplaceable.
Guy's book, The Art of the Start, sums up many important elements. Two of my favorites: 1)Pg 85: Start as a Service Business to generate immediate cash flow AND to gain personal experience with the product you've built. How novel, a supplier who actually uses their own product; 2) Pg 89: Go Direct and bypass the [idiotic] thinking that selling through some distribution channel is going to build revenue faster. False hope. No way to develop customer intimacy!
If you are thinking about starting a business or if you are already well on your way, you need to read this book. It will save you money. Period.
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Krupp (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-14 00:00>
This is a fun and quick read. Don't be fooled though, Guy answers a lot of questions that don't get covered in any of the other books on entrepreneurship. For example, what is the appropriate percentage of the company to give to those you invite to be on your board of directors? Or how long should my powerpoint pitch be? These are the kinds of no nonsense problems that Guy explains more clearly than anyone else.
This book won't teach you everything you need to know to be successful, but it will teach you things you need to be successful that you won't find anywhere else. For anyone considering starting a business or a non-profit, there will be many books you have to read, and this should be book number one.
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