Guy Kawasaki: An interview by Bob Morris

Guy Kawasaki

After having earned an undergraduate degree at Stanford, Kawasaki embarked on a career in business (counting diamonds for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings) while at work on an MBA degree at UCLA. (He had already earned an undergraduate degree at Stanford.) Kawasaki later went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted him to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so. I can’t live in a city where people call sushi ‘bait.’ Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM.” By now, he was accumulating a wealth of real-world experience in leadership and management and well as knowledge about marketing, sales, finance, strategic planning, problem-solving, resource allocation, and customer relations. The scope and depth of his interests are indicated in the books he has published thus far. They include his first, The Mackintosh Way, followed by Selling the Dream, The Computer Curmudgeon, Hindsights, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Rules for Revolutionaries, The Art of the Start, Reality Check, and most recently, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.

Morris: Other than family members, who have had the greatest impact on your personal development?

Kawasaki: I cannot exclude my family from this answer. The people who have had the most impact on my personal development are my wife and my first real boss, Marty Gruber. My wife holds me to the highest ethical, moral, and social standards. Marty Gruber was my boss when I worked in the jewelry business, and he taught me how to trust, be trusted, and how to sell.

Morris: Of all the books that you have published thus far, which was the most difficult to write? Why?

Kawasaki: The most difficult book to write should have been the easiest: Hindsights. It was a collection of interviews of people’s hindsights in life. I thought it would be a matter of turning on a tape recorder and then getting the tapes transcribed. It was a monumental effort to find the right people, get to them, interview them, transcribe the interview, and then edit it.

Morris: As you reflect upon your association with Apple, what has proven to be the most valuable business lessons you learned from it?

Kawasaki: I learned two valuable lessons at Apple. First, lo and behold, the best product doesn’t always win — Windows, to this day, vastly outsells Macintosh. I naively thought that the best product should and would win.

Second, I learned that if you enchant people with what you do, they will believe in you and provide an unbelievable amount of help. Apple would not have survived without its user groups, voluntary evangelists, and believers. They moved heaven and earth for Apple.

*     *     *

To read the complete interview, please click here.