Guy Kawasaki - Wise Guy: Lessons From a Life

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Copyright 2019 by Guy Kawasaki

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Page 37: Photo courtesy of Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images.

ISBN 9780525538615 (hardcover)

ISBN 9780525538622 (ebook)

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To my wife, Beth, my greatest source of wisdom

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

Pericles

Preface

People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, its the other way around.

Terry Pratchett

Before you ask, or wonder, this is not my autobiography or memoir. It is a compilation of the most enlightening stories of my life. Think personal lessons, not personal history.

My stories do not depict epic, tragic, or heroic occurrences, because that hasnt been the trajectory of my life. They do not depict a rapid, meteoric rise, either. One decision. One failure. Hard work. One success. My goal is to educate, not awe, you.

From the bottom of my heart, I hope my stories help you to live a more joyous, productive, and meaningful life. If Wise Guy succeeds at this, then thats the best story of all.

Guy Kawasaki

Silicon Valley, California, 2018

How This Book Is Organized

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.

Aldous Huxley

The flow of this book is a combination of chronological and topical. Its not purely chronological because acquiring wisdom isnt a quick or linear process.

The format for most of the book is a story followed by the wisdom it represents. I diverge from this format in a few places, and its important to me that you know that neither sloppy writing nor careless editing caused the inconsistency.

Each nugget of wisdom is marked with the shaka symbol, which looks like this: . Shaka is a Hawaiian/surfing hand symbol that loosely translates to aloha, right on, or mahalo, depending on the context.

Lastly, I hate bugs, and after fifteen books, I know that no matter how meticulous an author and publisher are, a few might sneak through. Please send me an email at to report errors that you find, as well aseven betterprovide your feedback about the book.

Mahalo

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

William Arthur Ward

Jennifer Barr, Courtney Colwell, David Deal, Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, Moira Gunn, Bruna Martinuzzi, Terri Mayall, Will Mayall, Craig Big Wave Stein, Kirsten Tanner, and Shawn Welch helped with the initial conceptualization of the book.

Rick Kot provided the deft touch that guided me editorially. Rainer Hosch and Marc Silber took the great photos that adorn the dust jacket. Christopher Sergio then created a great dust jacket with them. Norma Barksdale made everything work together.

Cathy Chong, Lori Couderc, and Suzan Liggett provided irreplaceable assistance with background information and fact-checking. Theres nothing like writing a book to discover how little you know!

These people volunteered to read and comment on early drafts. They found more than a thousand ways to make the book better:

Michael Bomhoff

Beth Kawasaki

Kris Bondi

Nic Kawasaki

Susan Bouvette

Dori Kemker

Bukanla Boyd

Swati Khurana

Stephen Brand

Ruth Lund

Buzz Bruggeman

Todd Lyden

S. Chowdhary

Svetlana Maklakova

Karen Coppock

Chuck Marecic

Jerry Crisci

Howard Miller

Tom Curtis

Donna Mills

Benot H. Dicaire

Kimberly Moore

Glendalynn Dixon

Leslie Morgan Nakajima

Papasavvas Elias

Randee Napp

Andres Elizalde

Ryan OMara

Doug Erickson

Cory Ondrejka

Teresa Esola

Anitha Pai

Hendrik Eybers

Santino Pasutto

Rob Ferguson

Klemen Peternel

Daniel Fryda

Emily-Anne Pillari

Cailey Gibson

Matthias Rnsberg

Roger Haller

Srgio Rosa

Prez Herrera

Jadeep Shah

Abdul Jaleel

Parker Sipes

Jennifer J. Johnson

Patrick Slattery

Naga Subramanya

Prez Herrera Walevska

Maja Vujovic

Lisa Westby

Dan Waite

Bill Whiteside

Stacks Menlo Park, Stacks Redwood City, Coffeebar Menlo Park, Cat and Cloud, Cliff Caf, Verve, Kaito, Harbor Caf, East Side Eatery, and The Buttery provided crucial places to eat, drink, and work.

A big MAHALO to you all.