Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki |Book Brief

THE BOOK, REALITY CHECK, TELLS YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT STARTING, GROWING, AND MAINTAINING ANY BUSINESS. ENTREPRENEUR, BLOGGER, AND VENTURE CAPITALIST GUY KAWASAKI, EXPLAINS WHAT IT TAKES TO STAY AHEAD OF THE PACK.

Guy Kawasaki: Over the years, thousands of entrepreneurs have asked me for advice. After answering the same questions over and over, I decided to aggregate the best of everything I've written and read about starting great organizations. The truth is that success doesn't take professional and proven people. Success takes crazy, passionate and unproven people who believe they can change the world. Reality Check is an irreverent guide to outsmarting, out-managing and out-marketing your competition. Here are some examples of all three

There are a number of ways to outsmart the competition. One is what I like to call Frame or be Framed. The reality is that people will initially see your product as you present it to them. If you don't take the time to distinguish your product, someone else will and that alone could be your undoing. For example, a music sharing site can frame its services as a music-listener's revolution. This implies that record companies are oppressing people, and that the very act of joining this service is a stand against the oppressors. That beats the heck out of piracy doesn't it? Another great example is the 700 Billion Dollar Bail-Out on Capitol Hill. Why would anyone want to bail out the bunch of greedy, rich investment bankers who got us into this mess in the first place? But why is it framed as a bail out? The politicians could have framed the same bill as the best real-estate opportunity in the last 100 years that we can use to fund alternative energy sources. But no, they didn't, and as a result the bill was poorly framed. When starting a new business, you'd better frame or you will be framed.

If you want to out-manage your competition, you have to understand your employees and how to manage their behavior. Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychology professor, spent thirty years studying why some people excel and others don't. Her belief is that people either have growth or fixed mind-sets. People with growth mind-sets view life as a series of challenges and opportunities for improvement. People with fixed mindsets believe that they are stuck as either good or bad people.

The problem is that the good ones believe they don't have to work hard, and the bad ones believe that working hard won't change anything. All leaders will need to manage both types. Dweck identified a best practice called the Effort Effect which suggests staying clear of praising your employee's brilliance or what they did right. They should give employees feedback about the quality of their effort instead - for example "you worked very hard. If people believe that your praise is based on the fact that they're smart it can create "risk averse" behavior and have the opposite effect of what you want. Again, praise your employee's effort, not their inherent brilliance.

One of your greatest marketing tools is evangelism that is, getting people to believe in your product and then spreading the love. You can blow all the smoke you like about partnerships, brand awareness, and corporate image, but you either attract believers or you don't. Memorize this: the key to great evangelism is great innovation. Evangelism, after all, comes from the Greek word for bringing the good news, not bringing the crappy news.

The second most important determinant of the success of an evangelist is the love of the cause. Evangelist isn't simply a job title, it's a way of life. So if you've got a great product and a love of the cause, here's a road map. People have to get, quote get your product in ten minutes, or they'll never get it. Do away with lofty, flowery terms like revolutionary and paradigm shifting". People don't buy revolutions. They buy aspirins to fix the pain or vitamins to supplement their lives. You will need to learn how to give a demo. This demo needs to quickens the pulse of everyone in the audience and be willing to meet with anyone who gets it and is willing to help you. Good evangelists are humble yet bold.

I'm also a big believer in schwag. Anything with your logo on it - t-shirts, bags, mugs, pens, etc. These gifts are inexpensive but can go a long way, especially with believers. With that said, I don't recommend financially rewarding your evangelists. Monetary compensation changes the dynamics of true evangelism and several studies have shown that it can even hinder the process.

So there you have it, three examples of outsmarting, out-managing, and out-marketing your competition. I'll leave you with this quick check list: first, watch for opportunities, be willing to compete with status quo, and build products that people will fall in love with and then become your unpaid evangelists. The bottom line is that if you exhibit these qualities, you're probably as qualified as anyone to succeed. And that's the reality of today's business environment.

Thank you for reading Reality Check. I hope you change the world.

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