Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it's more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.

Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions. For instance, enchantment is what enabled . . .

• A Peace Corps volunteer to finesse a potentially violent confrontation with armed guerrillas.
• A small cable channel (E!) to win the TV broadcast rights to radio superstar Howard Stern.??
• A seemingly crazy new running shoe (Vibram Five Fingers) to methodically build a passionate customer base.??
• A Canadian crystal maker (Nova Scotian Crystal) to turn observers into buyers.

This book explains all the tactics you need to prepare and launch an enchantment campaign; to get the most from both push and pull technologies; and to enchant your customers, your employees, and even your boss. It shows how enchantment can turn difficult decisions your way, at times when intangibles mean more than hard facts. It will help you overcome other people's entrenched habits and defy the not-always-wise "wisdom of the crowd."

Kawasaki's lessons are drawn from his tenure at one of the most enchanting organizations of all time, Apple, as well as his decades of experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. There are few people in the world more qualified to teach you how to enchant people.

As Kawasaki writes, "Want to change the world? Change caterpillars into butterflies? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do." That's a big goal, but one that's possible for all of us.

"Guy's book captures the importance - and the art - of believing in an idea that delivers something entirely unique to the customer. The power of a really good idea to transform the marketplace and individual customer experiences is huge, and this book offers a wealth of insights to help businesses and entrepreneurs tap into that potential."Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group

"Kawasaki provides insights so valuable we all wish we'd had them first."Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice

"The best overall treatise on interpersonal relationships since Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People."Michael Gartenberg, research director, Gartner

"Guy has written the small-business manifesto. There is nothing more important for entrepreneurs than to enchant their customers, and Guy explains exactly how to do this."Jane Applegate, small-business management expert and author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business

"Guy teaches you how to pull gems from people's hearts and minds and how to become an effective practitioner of life's crucial domains. Clearly, I taught him well."Dr. Phil Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology, Stanford University

"You feel it when you drive a BMW, touch an Apple iPad, shop in a Sephora store, or buy shoes from Zappos. Kawasaki reveals how you can deliver the same enchanting experiences as these famous brands."Robert Scoble, Rackspace videoblogger

A successful entrepreneur requires three things: a garage, an idea, and this bookGuys irrepressible guide to the raw essentials of life in a young company. I wish we could post all this information on Sequoia Capitals Web site because it would make our jobs much easier.Michael Moritz, Sequoia CapitalWhen God made the universe, He took Guys advice and started small and put his whole heart into it. Okay, not everything turned out perfect, but as The Art of the Start makes clear, there are no guarantees, only great opportunities. Read this book and then go do something wonderful.Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the ChasmThis is a delightful, complete, and consummately practical entrepreneurs handbookquintessential Kawasaki. Every person who wants to start a business should read it. And read the footnote on page eight. Theres more good stuff in here, but this alone is worth the price of the book.Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovators Dilemma and The Innovators SolutionI have built my business into an internationally famous brand, and yet after reading this book, I have this nearly uncontrollable urge to chuck my whole business and start all over again. Guys book revealed so many things I had never even suspected and shattered so many of my illusions, that it read like a novel. I would love to be the bank for the people who read this book.Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the Guerrilla Marketing series of booksAs useful for the next great not-for-profit as for the next great VC-funded startup. Anyone trying to change the world should read The Art of the Start. I wish it had been around when I started Teach for America.Wendy Kopp, president and founder of Teach for America

"Guy's book captures the importance - and the art - of believing in an idea that delivers something entirely unique to the customer. The power of a really good idea to transform the marketplace and individual customer experiences is huge, and this book offers a wealth of insights to help businesses and entrepreneurs tap into that potential."Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group

"Kawasaki provides insights so valuable we all wish we'd had them first."Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice

"The best overall treatise on interpersonal relationships since Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People."Michael Gartenberg, research director, Gartner

"Guy has written the small-business manifesto. There is nothing more important for entrepreneurs than to enchant their customers, and Guy explains exactly how to do this."Jane Applegate, small-business management expert and author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business

"Guy teaches you how to pull gems from people's hearts and minds and how to become an effective practitioner of life's crucial domains. Clearly, I taught him well."Dr. Phil Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology, Stanford University

"You feel it when you drive a BMW, touch an Apple iPad, shop in a Sephora store, or buy shoes from Zappos. Kawasaki reveals how you can deliver the same enchanting experiences as these famous brands."Robert Scoble, Rackspace videoblogger

More uncommon common sense from the bestselling author of The Art of the Start.

In Silicon Valley slang, a bozo explosion is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity. As Guy Kawasaki puts it, If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that dont make sense . . . its time for a reality check.

For nearly three decades, Kawasaki has earned a stellar reputation as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and irreverent pundit. His 2004 bestseller, The Art of the Start, has become the most acclaimed bible for small business. And his blog is consistently one of the fifty most popular in the world.

Now, Kawasaki has compiled his best wit, wisdom, and contrarian opinions in handy book form. From competition to customer service, innovation to marketing, he shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices. He explains, for instance:

How to get a standing ovation

The art of schmoozing

How to create a community

The top ten lies of entrepreneurs

Everything you wanted to know about getting a job in Silicon Valley but didnt know who to ask

Provocative, useful, and very funny, this no bull shiitake book will show you why readers around the world love Guy Kawasaki.

"Don't even think about trying to launch a startup without reading Guy Kawasaki's Reality Check." -BizEd

For a quarter of a century, in his various guises as an entrepreneur, evangelist, venture capitalist, and guru, Guy Kawasaki has cast an irreverent eye on the dubious trends, sketchy theories, and outright foolishness of what so often passes for business today. Too many people frantically chase the Next Big Thing only to discover that all they've made is the Last Big Mistake.

Reality Check is Kawasaki's all-in-one guide for starting and operating great organizations-ones that stand the test of time and ignore any passing fads in business theory. This indispensable volume collects, updates, and expands the best entries from his popular blog and features his inimitable take on everything from effective e-mailing to sucking up to preventing "bozo explosions."

A new product, a new service, a new company, a new division, a new organization, a new anythingwhere theres a will, heres the way.It begins with a dream that just wont quit, the once-in-a-lifetime thunderbolt of pure inspiration, the obsession, the world-beater, the killer app, the next big thing. Everyone who wants to make the world a better place becomes possessed by a grand idea.

But what does it take to turn your idea into action?Whether you are an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, or not-for-profit crusader, theres no shortage of advice available on issues such as writing a business plan, recruiting, raising capital, and branding. In fact, there are so many books, articles, and Web sites that many startups get bogged down to the point of paralysis. Or else they focus on the wrong priorities and go broke before they discover their mistakes.In The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki brings two decades of experience as one of businesss most original and irreverent strategists to offer the essential guide for anyone starting anything, from a multinational corporation to a church group. At Apple in the 1980s, he helped lead one of the great companies of the century, turning ordinary consumers into evangelists. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm, he has field-tested his ideas with dozens of newly hatched companies. And as the author ofbestselling business books and articles, he has advised thousands of people who are making their startup dreams real.From raising money to hiring the right people, from defining your positioning to creating a brand, from creating buzz to buzzing the competition, from managing a board to fostering a community, this book will guide you through an adventure thats more art than sciencethe art of the start.

Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it's more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.

Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions. For instance, enchantment is what enabled . . .

• A Peace Corps volunteer to finesse a potentially violent confrontation with armed guerrillas.
• A small cable channel (E!) to win the TV broadcast rights to radio superstar Howard Stern.??
• A seemingly crazy new running shoe (Vibram Five Fingers) to methodically build a passionate customer base.??
• A Canadian crystal maker (Nova Scotian Crystal) to turn observers into buyers.

This book explains all the tactics you need to prepare and launch an enchantment campaign; to get the most from both push and pull technologies; and to enchant your customers, your employees, and even your boss. It shows how enchantment can turn difficult decisions your way, at times when intangibles mean more than hard facts. It will help you overcome other people's entrenched habits and defy the not-always-wise "wisdom of the crowd."

Kawasaki's lessons are drawn from his tenure at one of the most enchanting organizations of all time, Apple, as well as his decades of experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. There are few people in the world more qualified to teach you how to enchant people.

As Kawasaki writes, "Want to change the world? Change caterpillars into butterflies? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do." That's a big goal, but one that's possible for all of us.

Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes skeptics and cynics into believers and the undecided into the loyal.Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, its more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions.

Guy Kawasaki is the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm for high-technology companies, and a columnist for Forbes. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. A noted speaker and the founder of various personal computer companies, Kawasaki was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer. He is also the author of seven books, including Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

The Art of The Start Read Me First

Causation

Chapter 1: The Art of Starting

Articulation

Chapter 2: The Art of Positioning

Chapter 3: The Art of Pitching

Chapter 4: The Art of Writing a Business Plan

Activation

Chapter 5: The Art of Bootstrapping

Chapter 6: The Art of Recruiting

Chapter 7: The Art of Raising Capital

Proliferation

Chapter 8: The Art of Partnering

Chapter 9: The Art of Branding

Chapter 10: The Art of Rainmaking

Obligation

Chapter 11: The Art of Being a Mensch

Afterword

Index