My notes on the 2004 Guy Kawasaki video lectures.
Make meaning in your company
Companies that succeed are those that make meaning. If you set out to make money you probably won’t succeed.
Key motivations to start a great organization:
- Increase the quality of life
- Right a wrong
- Prevent the end of something good
Don’t write a mission statement
Make a mantra – three or four words that capture the essence of your organization.
E.g.
Wendy’s “healthy fast food”
FedeEx “Peace of mind”
Nike “Authentic athletic performance”
Mary Kay “Enriching women’s lives”
Kawasaki “Empowering entrepreneurs”
Dilbert mission statement generator website for mission statements.
Get up and get going
Think different, build the product/service that you love.
The best source of entrepreneurial spirit are people under 30 years old and solving a personal problem.
Think different.
Do not be afraid to polarize people. Ideally some people love your product, some people hate your product.
Find a few soul mates. When one person is down, you need the other person to pick you up and help you. Keep you warm.
The new business model
A specific person. Not “we’ll capture millions of eyeballs”. Not “enterprise software”, but “what size, who, and what they do”.
Keep it simple. We want innovate products/technologies.
Fundamentally, you make something, you sell it, you make money — that’s the model a VC can handle.
Ask women. Men has the “killer gene”. Start company to kill another company. Men are predisposed to want to kill things. Women don’t have this predisposition. Don’t waste your time asking men.
