Guy Kawasaki’s

Entrepreneurs, re-enchant the world!

There are people who see the workings of what Max Weber called the “disenchantment of the world,” a sort of inevitable sinking in their daily lives caused by an array of factors – good and bad reasons, from nostalgia for a Golden Age that may never have existed to disillusionment or dissatisfaction with a job. Meanwhile, there are those who believe in the possible re-enchantment of the world, creators and visionaries who want to make a difference – entrepreneurs. They want to enchant, and to share their visions of a better (or rather, bettered) world. As a result, they are able to withstand cynicism, skepticism, stasis, blasé attitudes, and resignation. This is the subject of Guy Kawasaki’s Enchantment.

The term “enchantment” evokes dreams and myths, and the apparition of miraculous fairies and omnipotent sorcerers. It represents the carefree joy of childhood, when everything still seems possible. We use this word almost inadvertently when we refer to the small marvels of our day-to-day lives: love at first sight, a baby’s smile and its first, tentative steps, or discovering something that previously seemed unimaginable. Almost inadvertently, we realize that the world around us, while giving us grounds for lament, is also rife with ways to fill us with wonderment in which we can abandon ourselves, as well as ways to make others do the same. For example, Skype, a practical tool in a business context, becomes a magical means of bridging divides when used to talk to a far-off loved one.

In order to enchant others, let yourself be enchanted

As adults, we are often reticent to let ourselves be enchanted, mostly because we are afraid to seem overly naïve or gullible. Instead, we fashion aloof personae, believing ourselves to be more intelligent when we protect ourselves with skepticism and condescension. But the more we live within the largely arbitrary confines of this dogma, the more we are limiting ourselves to the status quo, as we become unable to sense the vibrations of innovation stirring both in others and in ourselves. So begins the vicious circle of boredom in which so many blasé self-proclaimed “realists” are trapped: as they shut themselves off from the creative pulse that surrounds them, they are increasingly unable to imagine ways to transform the world that so dissatisfies them, or charm the people from whom they feel alienated. Numb to the sensation of wonderment, they are left with no means to amaze others. Tedium begets tedium, and only boring people are bored.

According to the recently deceased Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever (1913–2010), “Childhood alone does not age[1].” You should not allow the capacity to believe a good story that you had as child disappear if you want to be able to enchant others. Whether or not we are willing to admit to being taken aback, fascinated, or amazed by someone or something, allowing ourselves to be, means regaining energy and enthusiasm. We are able to look forward creatively and connect to the people that surround so that they can share in our breakthroughs or happiness. Enchantment is contagious. It is an indispensable starting point, although it is only a starting point: all the artistic interest in the world alone cannot and will not make a Van Gogh of anybody. Nor is it enough to be enchanted to become a great enchanter. Like in any art, the road to excellence follows a simple formula: 10% talent, 90% work. This book’s aim is to help readers in their approach and understanding of the 90%.

Construct your MAGIC

The strength behind any enchanter is MAGIC, or, in other words, his:

• Mastery: If you have ever seen Steve Jobs on stage, you will agree that he is incredible. This is not necessarily because he has the charisma of an actor, but because he is prepared beyond anything you can imagine.

• Authority: An enchanter knows what he is talking about; he is competent and strong. He possesses in his rhetoric what the Greeks called ethos (ἦθος): the quality that allows a speaker to capture the attention of his audience and to instill confidence by means of his credibility, his knowledge, and his moral competence.

• Generosity: An enchanter is able to convey a likeable image because his goal is above to give to his audience, and not to find self-validation or to force people to love and admire him. Instead, he transfers his own power to his public.

• Imagination: An enchanter sees and understands the environment of the people listening to him in order to overcome their reticence or skepticism, and to open their eyes to greater possibilities.

• Commitment: Enchantment entails a human relationship, either face to face, or by means of technology. Every enchanter dreams of making a lasting connection, or one whose echo is still present in the people he has reached, either because they still use the product he has showed them years ago, or because they still remember it fondly.

Hone your art

Every chapter of Enchantment is a guide that insists you work on your weak points while strengthening your strong ones. How do you smile? How is your handshake? And so on: these are small details about which you probably no longer think, as deeply entrenched in the definition of yourself as they are. Often, they are so much “in your nature” that they are no longer really in your current nature at all, but merely ghost remnants of what you were a decade ago. Remember that every new pair of eyes you encounter will look upon “you” subjectively as you are in the moment, and not with knowledge of who you once were. Perhaps you have become patronizing without fully realizing it; your smile is no longer a genuine gesture but a vague stiffening around your lips, or your handshake has become a limp motion without any real eye contact or warmth… It is as much work to create enchantment in oneself as it is to create it in others!

Reality Check was a sequel to The Art of the Start. Enchantment is simultaneously a third installment in the series and a sort of prequel. Honestly, if you have no desire to charm anyone, how are you ever going to successfully start a company? From where will you draw enthusiasm for the day-to-day realities of your corporation if you do not see that you must win over and connect with your employees, co-workers, and clients? If you do not let yourself be won over by them in order to renew your own energy and drive? With this in mind, this book is undeniably an important learning tool, rather than a diaphanous essay.

This book presents a set of techniques, which are not necessarily enchanting in and of themselves – the point is not to lull you with rose-tinted storybook fantasies. It is to dissect for you the mechanisms behind the process of enchantment. For instance, Kawasaki’s anecdote about his guests’ reaction to garbage cans at his home is not particularly enchanting (although certainly amusing), but it does bring home a key idea: anticipate people’s reactions in order to influence their behavior! After all, musk can be a revolting smell for many, but it is also the base of some of the most beautiful and attractive perfumes. In this case, the metamorphosis is in the way its parts play within the whole, the MAGIC of the perfumer who brings them all together.

Learn from the MAGIC of others…

… And, of course, start with Guy Kawasaki. He knows what he’s talking about. He is not a university professor orating conceptually on the art of influence or a psychologist dissecting the behavior of human test subjects, although he does draw from such research. He is a practitioner in the art of enchantment – I was struck by this the first time I met him, in 1986. I had just arrived in Silicon Valley, and I had never heard his name. I learned that he was a Macintosh evangelist in the United States, although I wasn’t quite sure what this was supposed to mean. (I was particularly puzzled by the religious connotations of “evangelism,” which was not a word used in this context in France at the time.)

And then, one day, I understood: watching him speak to a group of developers, noticing the way he mixed a genuine desire to win over people with a certain attentive nonchalance. He made telling his story an art form, with such mastery that there was never rigidity in his demeanor, his tone, or his style. He was not trying to impress for the sake of impressing. The focus, although on him, seemed to be guided toward all those who were listening. People came to him easily because they wanted to follow this enchanter. That day I understood how he had won over so many brilliant programmers and maintained their interest in Macintosh even after Steve Jobs’ universally traumatic departure in 1985.

When, the following year, I asked if he wanted to be president of the company I was creating. He answered me “Really?” with a smile – a genuine smile that caused little crows’ feet to appear at the corner of his eyes. Then, quickly, he agreed. But it was not until a few days later that I was really enchanted, when, upon reading a New York Times article, I discovered he was far more famous than I had ever imagined. Real enchanters don’t need to impose their power and renown; they own them and keep them through the elegance of their humility.

If you think I am too partial because I have known Kawasaki for more than twenty years, go hear him talk. You see dozens of individuals who have never met him take a seat in the room, and you see them leave different from how they were when they came in. They are smiling; they are happy. They begin to speak to the people around them. All of a sudden, they find something to share with the world. They have been enchanted, and they are ready to become enchanters in their own right.

About 40 students of the INSEAD business school from both the Singapore and the Fontainebleau campuses spent the week in Silicon Valley and attended various presentations and lectures, all remarkably coordinated by Dominique Trempont (left on the picture with three students, Mauricio from Colombia, Fawad from Pakistan and Philipp from Germany). I already spoke about INSEAD a while ago in a conversation with Eric Benhamou. This week, I was able to take a closer look at the exceptional value of this 12-month intensive MBA program, as well as the quality of the human experience provided by this truly international business school. The students who chose the Silicon Valley program are a subset of the 2009 class (others selected different places). I was impressed by this group of brilliant and open-minded folks born in about 25 different countries — and I was ever more impressed to find out that not all of them intend to pursue a career in high-tech. I have no idea how the admission process at INSEAD works, yet it’s clear from the sample I saw that the school is very good at identifying authentically curious people, those who, as Mark Twain said, are able to “Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in [their] sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

I was one of the speakers invited by Dominique Trempont during the week. The theme of my lecture was “Starting a company: Thrills and Agonies.”

You can establish a list of reasons of why startups fail, and come up with 5, 10, 15, or 20 causes of failures depending on the angle you take. In the end, only one may be deadly: when a startup creates a product that nobody wants. In this presentation, I focused more specifically on one important factor that can improve the chances of succeeding: the depth and breadth of an entrepreneur’s commitment to his/her project, and subsequently, his/her ability to draw people to his/her cause.

Here below is the slideshow that I used and a short summary of the themes I discussed for 90 minutes. Over the next few weeks, I may discuss some of these slides more extensively.   

I recently finished translating Guy’s new book, Reality Check, into French. It will be sold as La réalité de l’entrepreneuriat at the end of March, and is published by the Editions Diateino.

It is when you translate a book that you best realize that there is a lot to it. It is also a significant task as you can very well imagine, but I look at it as my “community service” for French entrepreneurs. Even if most of them read English, it is often easier to remember key messages in one’s native tongue. And it’s so pleasurable to see Guy, himself, in every single page! Let’s call this the charm of infinite recursion.

Many people write books to promote themselves and end up projecting a public persona that significantly differs from who they actually are. But Guy is Guy ☺ and this book the scintillating mirror of the person he is, a DICEE person, almost in the same fashion as he speaks of DICEE product.

Deep: Because of his exceptional observation skills (and memory), Guy has amassed an amazing experience – and is a jim-dandy (should I say, a guy-dandy?) of a correspondent and commentator of the Silicon Valley’s habits and fauna. Yet, this experience always converges towards one single goal: making meaning. Each of his books tells you of great people and great products.

Intelligent. Who had the idea of providing an easy-to-use vade-mecum to entrepreneurs before Guy? Nobody really. There are lots of great books on specific business aspects, but Guy had the charisma to stage all the do’s and don’ts in start-ups so clearly that entrepreneurs immediately understand that they have to go back to the drawing board (and to their PowerPoint), learn how to tell their story, and get to the bottom of things: does what I want to do “make meaning”? Guy’s personal mantra is to help entrepreneurs.

Complete. Guy is more than a great writer. A great speaker. A great blogger. A great twitterer. Are there so many Siliconites able to claim that if he twittered that he is flying to Istanbul, he would have a group of twenty people to talk to immediately? And in all circumstances, he is truthful. As famous as he is for being the Macintosh evangelist, he is also proud to remind people that Mike Boich was the first one and Alain Rossmann the third. He is immensely dedicated to assisting his friends as they go through terrible ordeals. And have you noticed his dedication to his four children and his wife?

Elegant. Guy’s interface is truly elegant. He is accessible. You don’t need multiple introductions to meet with him. It’s extremely easy to speak to him, because he likes to listen to people and sincerely cares about them. He is even too polite with the people who make a living… but would like him to speak for free. Incidentally, he is also quite elegant sartorially, as elegance is not simply the narcissist act of dressing well, but of dressing appropriately and in a way that does not distort interaction with people. 

Emotive (Emotional?). No matter how often Guy has repeated this 10/20/30 rule, he remains equally passionate about his message. Same thing when he speaks of evangelism, about customers, about MBAs, about VCS, about polarizing products. Listen, when he says: “Stupid”… “Boy, I tell you…,” “I can’t tell you how good it feels…,” “It’s a huge mistake…,” “Never ever let the bozos drag you down…,” or “I want to be in first class Singapore Airlines for eternity.”

Navigate inside and through this zoomorama (you can zoom-in/out the pictures and videos as well as see them in full screen). Note on 4/6/9: Temporary problem with the videos due to an unexpected change in YouTube policies. Zoomorama is addressing the issue.

But maybe he is more than a DICEE person: He has a lot of humor, he is humble, he has no problem speaking about his mistakes, he is open to innovation, etc., and he has an incredible smile. Anyway, I like Guy. I was lucky enough to meet him for the first time in 1985. I did not know that he was so venerated in the Macintosh because I was coming from France – and I am glad because his “importance” did not distort my perception of him. I simply liked him because of what I saw of him (so much so that I hired him for the start-up I founded in 1987).  So don’t ask me to tell you what his negatives are. I don’t know and I don’t think of the people I like in terms of pluses in one column and minuses in another – to make a good balance. Sure great people may have (what could be labeled as) “flaws,” but these alleged flaws are often just another plus. If they are bright, yes, they can be sarcastic when they speak of bozos. What’s wrong with that? If they were always too kind, would they still be bright?

Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

More information:

Guy Kawasaki: http://www.guykawasaki.com; http://twitter.com/guykawasaki.

Read Guy’s blog: ”How to Change the World: “Audi–Like My Belly Button?” Life with Four Kids and an Audi R8″ http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/audi–like-my-b.html#ixzz09IK6uCPT (”Audi–Like My Belly Button?” Life with Four Kids and an Audi R8″)

Alltop, the first real online magazine rack – owned by Nononina, a company that he co-founded with two remarkable persons (and very dear friends of both of us): Will Mayall and Kathryn Henkens: http://alltop.com/

All the books written by Guy in English:

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services

How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit

Hindsights: The Wisdom and Breakthroughs of Remarkable People

The Computer Curmudgeon

Selling the Dream

Database 101

The MacIntosh Way

Books in French: 

Editions Diateino:

La réalité de l’entrepreneuriat: 

http://diateino.com/imglivre/205_GLa_r_alit__de_l_entrepreneuriat.jpg;

L’art de se lancer: http://diateino.com/livres.php?livre=42

Edition First:

Affolez vos concurrents: http://www.efirst.com/XXXsearch.asp?recherche=Affolez+vos+concurrents&Image2.x=0&Image2.y=0