Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and formerly was an advisor to Motorola and chief evangelist at Apple. He had an entrepreneur within himself because of which he left Apple to make it big on his own. He went from working for some big names to being his own boss to again work for someone. Throughout his illustrious career, he had several experiences and he are four lessons you can learn from him.
Choose Mantra over Mission
Guy Kawasaki states that one must pick mantra over mission. Mission statements are usually glorified words penned by MBA holders from top B – schools. He calls this the root cause of several issues. He believes that organizations should rather believe in building mantras. These Mantras would dictate exactly what the organization offers in not more than four words. Some popular examples being:
Federal Express: “Peace of mind”
Nike: “Authentic athletic performance”
Target: “Democratize design”
Mary Kay “Enriching women’s lives”
Create the brand ‘YOU!’
He states that there is no secret formula to having a great career except that one should be themselves. One must realize that the journey of self-learning is a never ending one. The more you build yourself as a brand, the more you would understand yourself. You must offer your real self to the world and you would soon be making meaningful connections. This is how leaders are created. They have a certain authenticity about themselves and have a strong network.
Pitch in 10 slides
Often several people have a tendency to pitch their startups in nothing less than 30 slides. Guy Kawasaki on the other hand states that one must have the ability to pitch in 10 slides. As a venture capitalist, he has heard several budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas in such brief manners that he would often lose his interest. Hence, the 10 slide rule. He finds it to be the optimal number because humans cannot comprehend more than 10 concepts in a meeting. If you require more than 10 slides to pitch your business, then you probably don’t have a business.
Know your real influencers
Lastly, one of the most important lessons one can learn from him is to be aware of A Listers and Influencers. He preaches that there are commonly held perceptions about influencers. Firstly, the few inform the many i.e. the size of the network may vary but each person wields some influence. Secondly, influencers share information because they know more. They are motivated with the idea of helping others and thus may speak highly about you and lastly, influencers may not necessarily be one topic experts. They have a diverse range of interests and hence have immense knowledge about them.
One must be aware of these perceptions and accordingly get to know the right influencers. These can be a great boon when you are starting your business and need to get attention of some investors and consumers.
