ENTREPRENEURS WISDOM.

7 November 2008

Guy Kawasaki is a best-selling author of seven books on entrepreneurship. Previously, he worked at Apple, where he was appointed to the Apple Fellow program, which recognizes employees who have made extraordinary contributions to personal computing. His latest book,“Reality Check” is a compilation of his advice, interviews and musings on all aspects of entrepreneurship. Check out his recent Q+A in the NY Times if you have your own business or are thinking about starting your own business.

Some of my favorites…
“The richest vein I have seen is two guys/gals who want to create a tool that they themselves want to use. This describes, for example, Google, Yahoo and Apple. I have come to believe that almost everyone has the entrepreneurial gene — it’s been necessary for survival for thousands of years.”

What is your advice to entrepreneurs seeking funding or growth opportunities if the credit and capital markets continue on their current course?
“My advice is that they melt wax into their ears and go forward. If they are waiting for wonderful credit and capital markets, they probably aren’t entrepreneurs. They’re much more likely to be consultants and bankers looking to quickly flip a company.”

“There are only two golden rules of pitching — whoever obeys these rules gets the gold. First, be able to explain in 30 seconds what your company does. Almost no one is capable of doing this. Second, when using PowerPoint, use 10 slides that you can cover in 20 minutes with fonts no smaller than 30 points. It’s called the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. Almost no one does this either.”

“If an entrepreneur’s lips are moving, she’s probably lying — though she may not know it. Part of being an entrepreneur is that you have to lie — first of all to yourself. You have to tell yourself that you can create something, people can build it, customers will buy it and you can collect the money.”