false 23 51 50 true 5651612 read 0 true 2715947 currently-reading 1 true 2715946 to-read 47 false 4376782 recommended http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68638692 Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods (Hardcover) by Shel Israel
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68638332 to: Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business (Paperback) by Jeff Howe
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68637248 A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Paperback) by Daniel H. Pink
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68635963 Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business (Hardcover) by Erik Qualman
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67152427 Trust Agents (Hardcover) by Chris Brogan
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45710667 to: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR (Hardcover) by Brian Solis
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67152153 Strategies and Tools for Corporate Blogging (Paperback) by John Cass
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67151916 to: Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters (Hardcover) by Scott Rosenberg
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/67151812 World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories (Hardcover) by David Meerman Scott
bookshelves: recommended
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40954782 to: Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition (Hardcover) by Guy Kawasaki
bookshelves: recommended
I've long followed the writings of Guy Kawasaki, the heralded Apple evangelist-emeritus-for-life. When we finally met at the recent Web 2.0 Summit, he surprised me by handing me a copy of his fresh-off-the-presses book, Reality Check: The irreverent guide to outsmarting, outmanaging and outmarketing your competition. So disclosure: I have a soft spot for authors who know how to leverage the blogosphere.

A reality check is exactly what the tech industry needs at this time of economic turmoil, and Kawasaki provides it in droves, spinning out bits of wisdom gleaned from 20 years as an industry insider and venture capitalist. Indeed, this is a book filled with bits, from the multitude of snappy 3-page chapters to the torrent of bullet points that rain down upon the Short Attention Span Generation.

Reality Check is geared chiefly toward newbie entrepreneurs who want to know the rules of the road in the Valley: the rules of how to put together a PowerPoint presentation, the rules of what to say (and not say) at a job interview or a VC meeting, the art of bootstrapping your startup, the art of creating a community or influencing people. Kawasaki has seen and heard it all, and while the book could have benefited from more anecdotes attached to real names, he offers enough advice in these 474 pages that even wizened tech veterans could glean some pointers.

The book is sprinkled with Q&As conducted with tech executives and thought leaders, and one wonders if some choices would have been different if the opportunity arose (for instance, I read the interview with the head of Yahoo!'s global human resource team on the day Yahoo! laid off 1,500 workers). But for every near-miss there are more than a few gems.

The author taps into the Zeitgeist of the Valley by reminding us that the founders behind many of the seminal companies of our time, like Google, started out by trying to solve a problem, not trying to launch a multinational corporation. Start small, stay simple, underhire, be conservative in your projections. It's at once Zenlike, lyrical and practical. Kawasaki is also a funny guy, lacing the book with wit and a liberal dose of the word "asshole."

While people running small companies, department heads, team managers and coders seem the most likely audience for Reality Check, big brands could take away a few lessons as well. Kathleen Gasperini, co-founder of Label Networks, observes smartly in one passage:

>Millions of dollars are wasted only to result in brand backlash, which takes millions more to undo. Many large brands or agencies can't see beyoind the thirty-second TV pitch. "But how do I reach them?" they ask. There are so many ways. You can walk right past a big idea if you have your cultural blinders on.

>These top-down companies are running with blinders on into a future that has a huge cliff. Grass roots and bottom-up is the most authentic way to go, and you can do this much faster than in the past, given the speed of communication and viral marketing. But you can't try to be cool and grassroots if it's not true and real. Grass roots takes being out in the marketplace—being there, in their lives, and relevant.

One bit of advice that I strongly disagree with appears in the chapter on blogging. "Think of your blog as a product," Kawasaki writes. Don't express "your spontaneous thoughts and feelings." Perhaps someone as high profile as Kawasaki needs to guard his public image, but for the rest of us in the blogosphere, honest and spontaneous is far superior to regimented and productized.

So, in summary: Planning to start a new venture or trying to reinvent a hidebound corporate culture? Read Reality Check to kick-start your sensibilities and heed Kawasaki's lifetime of business lessons distilled in these fast-paced pages. ]]>