The Art of the Start - The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki
Sometime ago I purchased Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
The book is completely focused on one thing, how to get anything (business, event or any idea) up and running, using 20 years of Guy’s experience in the field of start ups as the basis for the great advice contained within.
We all know those typical business and business planning books that go through mountains of theory before they don’t get to anything remotely useful for a startup. The Art of The Start is NOT one of those books – I want to make this point crystal clear, it is a down to earth, practical and very useful book. It is filled with gems of information that will actually help you get whatever you are starting up and running.
The Art of the Start covers all the stuff you are going to need to think about in order to get your startup going, from thinking up a fantatsic name for it through to recruiting people to work in it. A couple of my favourite pieces of advice from the book include:
On naming your startup:
“Don’t Compromise on your name.”
- “Have a first initial thats early in the alphabet”.
- “Avoid numbers”.
- “Pick a name with verb potential”
“Use slides to lead, not read…if you put too much detail on the slide, the audience will read ahead of you and not listen to what you are saying.” – In my opinion a fantastic piece of advice for anyone doing any sort of presentation.
The Art of The Start doesn’t occupy a slot on my book shelf – it’s usually found on my desk or I carry it in my bag regularly for ease of reference whenever I am thinking about a new project, business idea or refining what I am currently doing with Design Droplets. In fact The Art of the Start has been one of the most useful books for getting Design Droplets up and running/refining it. It is one of the few books I constantly pick, read, re-read and actually use.
If you decide to take the time to read The Art of The Start then I hope you find it as useful as I have.
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
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