How do you write a book?

One morning in 1989, I arrived at the ACIUS offices in Cupertino, CA, and, as usual, I went to say hello to Guy, then serving as President of the company we had co-founded.

That day, the conversation was not quite business as usual; Guy had other things on his mind:

“How do you write a book?” he asked me.

“You start on page 1 and finish on page 200 or 250,” I replied.

“Really? If it were that easy, everybody would be a writer…”

“But not everybody has something to say.”

“Do you think I have something to say?”

I told him yes, at which point he smiled from ear to ear: “I want to write a book.”

“Perfect – go for it!”

I don’t think Guy was ever afraid that I would object to his writing a book, but he may have wanted to make sure I knew he was embarking on a project that would take up a chunk of his time away the company. It was clear to me, however, that if work kept him away from writing, he would regret it; I told him he constantly would be thinking of what might have been, and therefore would be less productive. He asked me if I had taken creative writing classes to write my own books, and I amused him greatly when I didn’t even understand to what he was referring.

“So how will I know if it’s good?” he asked me.

“It’s just like any other product: either people want it, or they don’t. You’ll know if people read it.”

After he had written about sixty pages, he showed me the manuscript to get my opinion. I don’t remember making a great deal of comments – I simply found it good. What I had on my desk were the first chapters of the The Macintosh Way.

The timeless manifesto of the entrepreneurial spirit

Twenty-five years later, I find myself rereading this book with pleasure. In it, I truly recognize the Guy Kawasaki I knew in 1985, and the Guy I still know to this day.

It is said that the best authors write just one book, over and over, and in most cases this is true. The Macintosh Way contains the seeds for a good deal of the ideas that Guy has explored and developed over the course of his subsequent books, some of which I have translated for Diateino Publishing in France. Every book is informed by an author’s previous works, which allow readers to find and trace enduring themes. Read and judge for yourself whether I am wrong in thinking that The Macintosh Way is pure Guy Kawasaki.

For fans of Apple, this is a return to the source, and for fans of computers, it’s a return to the origin of personal computing — to the root of the curated and comfortable technology experience we have all come to expect today. A few weeks after the death of Steve Jobs this book is obviously à propos, as it serves both as an historical account and a timeless manifesto of the entrepreneurial spirit.

Taken as a piece of history: Even if Guy’s goal is not the chronicle of his life in the Macintosh division for which he was recruited in 1983 by a college friend, Mike Boich, his role in the group is present on nearly every page, as the book has an anecdotal backbone. In the French translation, we have removed some references that are firmly lodged in a bygone era, yet there are still a number of details that bring back to mind the incredible ebullience of the Silicon Valley in the eighties. Genius, just as now, waited for nothing; the overwhelming feeling that everything was changing around us urged people who have now become historical icons to push themselves to the limit – so far that even twenty years later some have retained this energy and vision to reimagine the world. It was certainly the case with Steve Jobs, but also with Bill Gates, who grew from genius programmer and industry leader into one of the most fascinating philanthropists in our world today.

When Guy told me in 1989 that he would title his book The Macintosh Way, I liked the name but feared it would not age well over time. I understood his reasoning, of course, as the Mac represented the beginning of his professional life, the same way it represented mine as an entrepreneur. At the same time, however, the Apple world had already changed, and despite our faith in the Macintosh’s power and beauty, we could not help fighting a certain feeling of Paradise Lost. The original stars that had created the Apple aura, Steve Jobs at the helm, had almost all left, and the subject of conversations at cocktail parties all around the Valley dealt at least as much with the continual Apple reorganizations as with Macintosh software updates and new capabilities. In fact, many of us believed that the spirit of Macintosh now lay outside of Apple. We were proud, yes, but I for one could not shake the feeling that our loyalty was partly born out of nostalgia even though the “Macintosh way” had largely shaped our entrepreneurial style.

Enchantment: Make your “Macintosh” successful…

Looking back, the title is far more powerful than I ever imagined in 1989. The Macintosh Way is not merely a series of tips collected in the Mac original heydays. In fact, as Guy reminds us in all his books and notably this one, experience can be a false guide: “Be wary of experience [...] It is better to work with raw, enthusiastic potential than an old pro from a competitor who will merely transfer his old habits to a new product and company. ” The Macintosh Way is more of an existential experience, a manifesto for entrepreneurs who have the skill and guts to believe in their vision and do what they must in order to change the world for the better by bringing people something they didn’t even realize they needed.

In 1989, while the Valley looked on the evolution of NeXT with skepticism and had not yet seen the scale of radical change that Steve Jobs could bring about in the film industry by investing in Pixar, Guy Kawasaki already summarized the symbolic significance of Jobs for all entrepreneurs: “Steve challenged the status quo and put something into motion that grew larger than anyone envisioned. Macintosh started as a computer. It became a cult. Then a phenomenon. Then a standard. Now it is a way of doing business. The development and introduction of Macintosh provides many examples of doing the right thing and doing things right.”

Over time, and with the announcement of Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple, then his subsequent death, the Macintosh has become a metaphor for entrepreneurial audacity and the will to transform vision into reality. This is what Guy expressed in The Macintosh Way and, again, most recently, in his preface to Enchantment: “By reading this book, you will learn how to apply my experiences as an evangelist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist to make your “Macintosh” successful.”

Happy reading!

Marylène Delbourg-Delphis

Menlo Park, January 2012

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