Silicon Valley icon and bestselling author Guy Kawasaki shares the unlikely stories of his life and the lessons we can draw from them.
Wise Guy by Guy Kawasaki – Guy Kawasaki has been a fixture in the tech world since he was part of Apple’s original Macintosh team in the 1980s. He’s widely respected as a source of wisdom about entrepreneurship, venture capital, marketing, and business evangelism, which he’s shared in bestselling books such as The Art of the Start and Enchantment. But before all that, he was just a middle-class kid in Hawaii, a grandson of Japanese immigrants, who loved football and got a C+ in 9th grade English.
Wise Guy, his most personal book, is about his surprising journey. It’s not a traditional memoir but a series of vignettes. He toyed with calling it Miso Soup for the Soul, because these stories (like those in the Chicken Soup series) reflect a wide range of experiences that have enlightened and inspired him.
For instance, you’ll follow Guy as he . . .
* Gets his first real job in the jewelry business–which turned out to be surprisingly useful training for the tech world.
* Disparages one of Apple’s potential partners in front of that company’s CEO, at the sneaky instigation of Steve Jobs.
* Blows up his Apple career with a single sentence, after Jobs withholds a pre-release copy of the Think Different ad campaign: “That’s okay, Steve, I don’t trust you either.”
* Reevaluates his self-importance after being mistaken for Jackie Chan by four young women.
* Takes up surfing at age 62–which teaches him that you can discover a new passion at any age, but younger is easier!
Guy covers everything from moral values to business skills to parenting. As he writes, “I hope my stories help you live a more joyous, productive, and meaningful life. If Wise Guy succeeds at this, then that’s the best story of all.
Review from Amazon.com
I don’t know how he did it, but Guy Kawasaki manages to recount some of his career and life lessons all wrapped up in slice-of-life anecdotes and wise nuggets throughout this book! I was excited to be an early reviewer of this book as I had followed Guy on social media for some time and wanted to read his marketing and tech business advice.
(And of course, who doesn’t want to hear some insider stories about working with Steve Jobs during the rise of Apple). You may pick up this book for the same purpose (and with good reason – Guy was a product evangelist for Apple long before any of us knew that job title) but you’ll get so much more. Guy is entertaining, warm, relatable, and openly shares what he has learned along the way, in business and in life.
It’s one of those books I’ll be gifting to friends again and again. This book is great for anyone interested in tech business, startups, entrepreneurial stories, global travel, parenting, surfing … life! You’ll be glad you picked it up – now go order it!
