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Monday, February 02, 2009
Guy Kawasaki, REALITY CHECK author, entrepreneur, Mac evangelist: Mr. Media Interview
Guy Kawasaki image via WikipediaHere are some of the things I learned from reading Guy Kawasaki’s new business manual, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition:
• He only eats at three Silicon Valley restaurants. That way he’ll be remembered by the staff and treated as a regular.
• He flies United Airlines 75 to 100 times a year, but Air Canada only once annually. United gives him deference for this patronage; Air Canada doesn’t know him from, well, me.
• And if you want to suck up to him, tell him he’s not a bad skater for an old guy.
Oh, and there’s a lot of great business direction and tips in the book, too. In fact, if you buy only one book in the next five years to help you get ahead in business, whether analog or digital, make it this book. It’s packed with easy to digest nuggets of sizzling consultant goodness.
That’s not sucking up, either—that’s just the truth.
You can LISTEN to this interview with GUY KAWASAKI, author of REALITY CHECK, THE ART OF THE START and THE MACINTOSH WAY, by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player above!
"Can Compuserve Be Saved?": Mr. Media Essay Classic
Originally published May 19, 1997
My first experience with the online world was back in the mid-1980s. A CompuServe disk came in the box with my first Apple computer, a IIc, and as geeky as the company's name was, I couldn't wait to try it out. The brochure promised a world of information, discussion groups and new friendships from the security of my own home.
Assembling the computer and turning it on, I put in the CompuServe disk and waited for the magic.
Nothing.
Can't remember how I expected it to work, really -- over power lines, maybe? This was before everyone and their grandmother knew about modems. I certainly didn't, so it was back to the store for another high-tech, 2400 bps gadget.
When I finally connected, I was enraptured. My new computer sent me messages from the distant land of Columbus, Ohio, prompting me for information and assigning me a CompuServe member number -- 76377,306 -- which I proudly bear to this day. Although a 2400 bps modem seems slow in this day of 56.6 bps, ISDN and cable TV connections, it gave me time to savor every download of software, archived news stories or just typed messages back and forth between electronic pen-pals.
Over the years, any time I needed research materials for an article or book, I turned to CompuServe. It's fast, reliable and offers an incomparable depth of source materials. We've also used it to order coffee, flowers and holiday gifts without fear of our credit card number being lifted -- unlike doing business on the Web, where security is far less reliable.
CompuServe is also a wonderful way of making new friends:
I remember reading the complaints of a would-be cartoonist in a comics forum. He grumbled about how no one gave his work a serious look. The next response in the string was from -- I kid you not -- Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury." He told the message writer that he'd gladly have a look -- and he did.
My wife spends more time in the various CompuServe forums than I, which is where she made the electronic acquaintance of several writer/producers for the innovative HBO series "Dream On." Being able to ask questions or comment on just-aired episodes was like being given a backstage pass.
An exchange of forum messages with one "Dream On" writer led to another pen-pal. Bob Alper read Mrs. Media's messages and wrote her, wondering if she was a scriptwriter. He explained that he was a Vermont-based rabbi-turned-standup comedian. Ironically, we had just returned from a vacation in Vermont where we read about a rabbi-turned-standup comedian. Sure enough, it was Alper, whom we've since dined with and seen perform several times.
This column was first electronically distributed over CompuServe, being sent to many members of the service's popular journalism forum. One of the first fan letters I received of any kind was from former Reagan speechwriter and CompuServe member Peggy Noonan. And when CompuServe temporarily blocked email delivery of this column to its members, I was overwhelmed by the supportive protests of some very well-known members of the media community.
The CompuServe of yesteryear was populated inside and out with pompous intellectuals and blinders-wearing techno-nerds, few of whom likely envisioned the plugged-in, tuned-in Internet free-for-all of the late 1990s. They spoke in jargon deliberately excluding less technical-minded folks, which no doubt explains, at least in part, why CompuServe is still struggling to grasp the way the world around it has changed while it stood still.
A decade ago, CompuServe was king of the online world, followed by GEnie and Delphi. America Online and Prodigy were barely blips on the radar. Today, of course, the situation is completely different. GEnie and Delphi are still around but skeletons of their past promise. Prodigy is, well, what the heck is Prodigy today? The Microsoft Network is making inroads but isn't exactly setting phone lines ablaze.
Both America Online and CompuServe long resisted giving their private parties access to the World Wide Web for a long time, knowing the headaches it would bring. For too long, they insisted the benefits of their closed communities were great enough to thwart defections to the wide open and free resources of the Web.
Wrong!
When they finally realized that sticking their heads in the sand was not an effective business strategy, AOL plunged into the Web head first but banged its head on the diving board on the way down. CompuServe, on the other hand, moved toward the Web kicking and screaming, but avoided the bad press of its top competitor.
On the other hand, CompuServe's myopia and slothishness toward the brave new world of Internet communications and commerce cost it dearly. Today, parent company H&R Block can't give CompuServe away. Rumors of a possible merger with AOL drove down the latter's stock and apparently stalemated talks.
In the last decade, I've gone through periods when I was more or less enamored of CompuServe for one reason or another. I tried America Online three or four times, ever frustrated by the inability to connect or receive help from customer support. But I always stuck by CompuServe. And now I'm worried about its future.
Rooting for CompuServe's survival and renewal reminds me of my other favorite "lost" cause, Apple Computer. Both are based on proprietary technology and unique personalities that are not for everybody. Their futures, if they have futures, will not be in being all things to all peoples but in carefully attending to a particular niche of wildly supportive paying customers -- like me.
Jason Snell, "Macworld" magazine editor: Mr. Media Interview, Pt. 1 (Video)
Besides a glass of Dr. Pepper, the one material thing I look forward to every day is checking in with my Macintosh computer.
I’ve been one of those crazed Mac guys since 1984, I guess, when I bought my first Apple, a IIc. Since then, I’ve upgraded every couple years, through the Plus, the Centris, the iMac, a Power Computing clone, an early iBook, a special edition silver clamshell, a newer iBook, and the desktop G5 I’m looking at now. There are also two iPods in the house, one mini, one video
I’m the crazed Mac evangelist you PC holdouts hate so much.
Joining me today is a guy who is probably more Mac-crazed – by profession, at least -- than I am. He’s Jason Snell, editorial director of Macworld, publishers of Macworld magazine, Macworld.com, Playlist, Mac OS X Hints, and MacUser.com. He has covered Apple and the Mac market since 1994.
Apple Computer's rabid legion of fans and evangelists don't care whether Steve Jobs broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests... er, stock options dating. They just want to know what the Wizard of i will announce at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco this week.
If you're among the eager, searching the web for smoke signals, check out the site MacRumors.com. It has posted a link to an Italian site where some enterprising acolyte is posting photographs from inside Macworld as vendor booths are being constructed and readied. ("Esclusiva, lo stand di Apple all'alba del Macworld.")
"At the precise moment Steve Jobs takes the stage for his Macworld Expo keynote at the Moscone Center," writes Philip Michaels, "Dell CEO Michael Dell will be doing likewise in Las Vegas. (Rumored topic of the Dell keynote: 'Dell’s desktops—now more beige than ever!') And while Jobs is wrapping things up with his 'One more thing…' patter in San Francisco, Dell will be yielding the floor to Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers for a thrill-a-minute talk about networking."
Care to guess which CEO and company founder will generate more excitement and news?
Bob Andelman is the host and producer of the “Mr. Media Radio” online interview show, now in its 4th year. He is also the author or co-author of 10 books including: The Profiler; Will Eisner: A Spirited Life; Built From Scratch; Mean Business; The Profit Zone; The Corporate Athlete, Stadium For Rent and several others. Complete biography & book reviews here. Looking to hire a collaborator or writer for a book? Contact my agent, Michael Bourret. Magazine editors can contact me directly.
Legs McNeil (Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk,” “The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored History of the Porn Film Industry,” Punk Magazine)
Bob Gruen (John Lennon, The Clash, New York Dolls rock ‘n’ roll photographer)
Michael Uslan (The Dark Knight, The Spirit, Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Batman Begins, Catwoman, Constantine, National Treasure, Swamp Thing, Shazam!, The Shadow, Constantine)
Guy Kawasaki image via WikipediaHere are some of the things I learned from reading Guy Kawasaki’s new business manual, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition:
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