Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.11
EAN: 9781591840565
Edition: 1
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 1591840562
Label: Portfolio Hardcover
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Portfolio Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 226
Publication Date: 2004-09-09
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Release Date: 2004-09-09
Studio: Portfolio Hardcover

What does it take to turn ideas into action? What are the elements of a perfect pitch? How do you win the war for talent? How do you establish a brand without bucks? These are some of the issues everyone faces when starting or revitalizing any undertaking, and Guy Kawasaki, former marketing maven of Apple Computer, provides the answers.

The Art of the Start will give you the essential steps to launch great products, services, and companies—whether you are dreaming of starting the next Microsoft or a not-for-profit that’s going to change the world. It also shows managers how to unleash entrepreneurial thinking at established companies, helping them foster the pluck and creativity that their businesses need to stay ahead of the pack. Kawasaki provides readers with GIST—Great Ideas for Starting Things—including his field-tested insider’s techniques for bootstrapping, branding, networking, recruiting, pitching, rainmaking, and, most important in this fickle consumer climate, building buzz.

At Apple, Kawasaki helped turn ordinary customers into fanatics. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has tested his iconoclastic ideas on real- world start- ups. And as an irrepressible columnist for Forbes, he has honed his best thinking about The Art of the Start.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Mmmmm, mmmmm good
Comment: I've been going through the Guy Kawasaki portfolio of books in order to improve my ability to communicate effectively and this is the most useful book I've come across yet. This covers all of the bases from idea conception to how to pitch to how to raise funds. Half way through the book I began thinking, "I should write a book about all of the useful information I am picking up from all of these various sources," but by the end of the book, I realized Guy had already done it.

AUDIENCE
I highly recommend that you be working on a project before reading this. I found myself completing a chapter and then rushing to my pitch or project plan to implement the new ideas I had just discovered. This was great as a user manual to help the process and targeted the things I was currently struggling with as well as gave me ideas about what I should be working on.

The Art of the Start is now on my bookcase in the section reserved for re-read. I intend to return to it periodically so I can take away new lessons as I am ready to learn them.

As a footnote, I followed this book with Made to Stick by the Heath brothers which was a great next read... review coming soon.

Marcel Crudele
Atlanta, GA

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Customer Rating:
Summary: How Anyone Can Achieve Anything
Comment: "The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything."

A simple yet profound guide for how anyone can achieve anything. The more we grow, the more we can help people, do what is right, and pay back society.

Everyone in the world should read Guy's strategies and techniques on presentations, pitching, business plans, marketing, and communicating.

I use his 10-20-30 presentation rule and his 10 step business plan guide for all my prototypes in business school and all my current companies.

Visit his blog on How to Change the World, and read the "10 Things to Learn This School Year," "VC Aptitude Test," and "Reality Check Checklist."

It's free on his blog. Buy this book and his new one as well.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Powerful Motivator
Comment: The Art of the Start is a great motivator for those who are interested in starting just about anything. Yes, Guy dives into a lot of topics pertaining to venture capitalism, but if you are starting a small business, this book will still give you to motivation to go out and get things done. This book is like a match lit up under your seat. Read it. You'll enjoy it and be driven by it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Necessity
Comment: From page one through out the entire book, you can't put it down. Almost every page of my book is highlighted and notes taken. Packed FULL of necessary information to start up your own business. Very well written and easy to comprehend. A definate must for anyone considering and planning a healthy start up business.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: More than art, it's pure gold in the palm of your hand!
Comment: My first start-up has taken me over a year to get off the ground. It's a huge and ambitious project and has put my entrepreneurial skills to a test. I truly believe in learning from others so I'm a member of virtually every entrepreneurial blog, magazine and forum. I have also purchased about 8 different books on the subject, all varying in context slightly. The problem with this is that the time spent on blogs, magazines, forums and books is time you can very well spend actually building your company.

If the Art of the Start would have been the first book I bought, I would have saved a lot of time. All the answers I had looked for previously were in there, and they were all explained in that typical Kawasaki way; to the point and no B.S.

This book is by far one of the best pieces of literature on the entrepreneurial start-up process I have yet to get my hands on. If you are planning to start a company, NGO or just a project within your already existing organization, I recommend you read this book FIRST. There will surely be other books that will guide you or help you with the specific details of the area you are working on but try to start out by getting the basic "how to..." of a start-up out of this book.

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