Guy Kawasaki

I just heard Guy Kawasaki speak at Straight Talk, a marketplace ministry hosted by Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. He uses humor well. For instance, he was offered a job in Atlanta but “couldn’t take a job where they call sushi bait.”

I really appreciated his intro:

When I was younger I used to go to a lot industry conferences, and I learned that most CEOs suck as speakers. And the only thing worse than listening to a speaker who sucks is not knowing how much longer they’re going to suck. So I’ve adopted a simple rule: all my presentations are in a top-ten format. That way, if you decide I suck you at least know how much longer I’m going to do it.

Unfortunately, I know a few preachers who could use his advice. 🙂

His talk was The Art of the Start, based on his book. It’s a talk he’s given in a lot of different venues. You can find the notes online. He did a pretty good job of customizing it for the context of the meeting (Christian business professionals and their guests).

In honor of his speaking advice, here are ten things I learned about Guy Kawasaki:

  1. He’s a Christian.
  2. He went to Stanford (where he majored in “the easiest major I could find–psychology.”).
  3. He secularized the term evangelism while at Apple. Good for him–the word could really use a facelift.
  4. He loves Apple and disdains Microsoft. “DOS was a moral wrong.”
  5. He finds evidence for the existence of a personal God in the continued survival of Apple. He further concludes that God really likes digital music and wants you to pay for it.
  6. He went to law school and dropped out after ten days, “thereby inheriting 2,000 years of pent-up Asian guilt.”
  7. He loves to play hockey–it sounds like an obsession.
  8. He is a CSI addict and is eagerly awaiting the day that they release CSI: Menlo Park.
  9. He loves first-class in Singapore Airlines. In fact, that’s his working model of heaven.
  10. He thinks iStockPhoto.com rocks–he went out of his way to plug it at the end of his presentation and claimed to do so without any financial incentive (“I’m not an investor or anything, I just love their product.”)

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