Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki

The latest book by Guy Kawasaki: Reality Check
The latest book by Guy Kawasaki: Reality Check

I just finished up the latest book by Guy Kawasaki, Reality Check. It was absolutely amazing which is to be expected from a person like Guy.

What I loved most about the book is its format. It’s one of those reads that allows for a busy schedule. Each chapter is to the point and devoid of bull shiitake, as he would say.

The book is a collection of Guy’s articles from over the years organized by topic. Together they are presented as what I would consider a must-have for any person in business. Not just business owners or entrepreneurs, but anyone operating and working in the corporate world.

One of my favorite excerpts is titled “Lies All Engineers Tell” and it’s absolutely poignant. It will ring true withy anyone who has worked with developers of any sort; especially web.

You can do a search to find reposts of this article, but some of the highlights are go something like this:

1. The project is always late. Always will be. It’s better to launch at 70% than wait for the project to be completed 100%.

2. Developers will ALWAYS think another developer’s work is crap. It is just how things are.

3. Developers who say they are better at architecting, are usually good at neither architecting nor developing.

That’s just one chapter in particular. The other chapters touch on every subject from hiring to marketing to branding demystifying truth from lies, involving expert commentary and delivering a wonderful read for anyone who’s super busy.

I give it two thumbs up.

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4 Responses

  1. A quick proofread would have found these errors:

    What a loved most about the book is its format.
    should be:
    What I loved most about the book is its format.

    It’s better to launch at 70% then wait for the project to be completed 100%.
    should be:
    It’s better to launch at 70% than wait for the project to be completed 100%.

    You can delete this comment after reading.

  2. Hey Charles,
    I think it’s better if we keep the post instead of deleting it. You see, Blogging isn’t an exact science. It’s from the gut and on the fly; written by real people devoid of the confines of corporate copy writers and lawyers. Secondarily, it is an open forum, meant to spark conversation and community. There is no room for selective commenting. All are welcome.

    A lot of corporate blogs fail or at the very least are ineffective because the company can’t let go of their control enough for people to add their thoughts, which is what a blog is essentially for (ooo, prepositional ending.) By the time a blog post goes through marketing departments, legal departments and upper management, it’s dull and outdated.

    When comments are scrutinized and deleted when deemed too controversial, the blog loses all its magic. This stifles the conversation and ruins the whole purpose of blogging.

    I appreciate the correction and appreciate even more the springboard for describing to any readers some items for consideration with regard to blogging.

    Thanks Chuck!

  3. A then or a than is an easy typo to make as most people write blogs in a conversational style and tend to just type whatever the sound their brain is making versus a copy writing exercise (and pronouncing words in your head with whatever dialect one speaks can easily make than sound like then). English needs a spelling overhaul anyways – don’t worry about it, sharing the thoughts is more important than 100% rule following.

    Thanks for the review, Guy has always been worth my time to read.

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