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Guy Kawasaki

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February 2011

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I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official during his long, distinguished career.

I attended Iolani School where I graduated in 1972. Iolani is not as well known as its rival, Punahou because no presidents of the U. S. went there, but I got a fantastic and formative education there. (Punahou is “USC,” and Iolani is “Stanford”—but I digress.) I pay special tribute to Harold Keables, my AP English teacher.He taught me that the key to writing is editing. No one I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1954. My family lived in a tough part of Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. We weren’t rich, but I never felt poor-because my mother and father made many sacrifices for my sister and me. My mother was a housewife, and my father was a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official during his long, distinguished career.

I attended Iolani School where I graduated in 1972. Iolani is not as well known as its rival, Punahou because no presidents of the U. S. went there, but I got a fantastic and formative education there. (Punahou is “USC,” and Iolani is “Stanford”—but I digress.) I pay special tribute to Harold Keables, my AP English teacher.He taught me that the key to writing is editing. No one in the universe would be more shocked that I have written ten books (or one book ten times) than Harold Keables.

After Iolani, I matriculated to Stanford; I graduated in 1976 with a major in psychology—which was the easiest major I could find. I loved Stanford. I sometimes wish I could go back in time to my undergraduate days “on the farm.”

After Stanford, I attended the law school at U.C. Davis because, like all Asian-American parents, my folks wanted me to be a “doctor, lawyer, or dentist.” I only lasted one week because I couldn’t deal with the law school teachers telling me that I was crap and that they were going to remake me.

The following year I entered the MBA program at UCLA. I liked this curriculum much better. While there, I worked for a fine-jewelry manufacturer called Nova Stylings; hence, my first real job was literally counting diamonds. From Nova, its CEO Marty Gruber, and my Jewish colleagues in the jewelry business, I learned how to sell, and this skill was vital to my entire career.

I remained at Nova for a few years until the the Apple II removed the scales from my eyes. Then I went to work for an educational software company called EduWare Services. However, Peachtree Software acquired the company and wanted me to move to Atlanta. “I don’t think so.” I can’t live in a city where people call sushi “bait.”

Luckily, my Stanford roommate, Mike Boich, got me a job at Apple; for giving me my chance at Apple, I owe Mike a great debt. When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM. I also met my wife Beth at Apple during this timeframe—Apple has been very good to me.

Around 1987, my job at Apple was done. Macintosh had plenty of software by then, so I left to start a Macintosh database company called ACIUS. It published a product called 4th Dimension. To this day, 4th Dimension remains a great database.

I ran ACIUS for two years and then left to pursue my bliss of writing, speaking, and consulting. I’ve written for Macuser, Macworld, and Forbes. I call these the “Wonder Years” as in “I wonder how I came to deserve such a good life.”

In 1989, I started another software company called Fog City Software with three of the best co-founders in the world: Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens, and Jud Spencer. We created an email product called Emailer which we sold to Claris and then a list server product called LetterRip.

In 1995 I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. At the time, according to the pundits, Apple was supposed to die. (Apple should have died about ten times in the past twenty years according to the pundits.) My job on this tour of duty was to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult.

A couple years later, I left Apple to start an angel investor matchmaking service called Garage.com with Craig Johnson of Venture Law Group and Rich Karlgaard of Forbes. Version 2.0 of Garage.com was an investment bank for helping entrepreneurs raise money from venture capitalists. Today, version 3.0 of Garage.com is called Garage Technology Ven ...more

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Guy Kawasaki's Blog

How Rebecca Bloom Is Helping Women Take Back Their Health

Welcome to Remarkable People.
We’re on a mission to make you remarkable. Helping me in this episode is Rebecca Bloom.

Rebecca is a force for fairness in a healthcare system that too often fails women. A former attorney and longtime advisor to patients, she’s seen firsthand how bureaucracy, bias, and burnout shape the care we receive—and the care we deserve. Her new book, When Women Get Sick, blends

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Guy Kawasaki’s books

Average rating: 3.88 · 65,995 ratings · 2,726 reviews · 93 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything 3.90 avg rating — 29,330 ratings — published 2004 — 83 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions 3.74 avg rating — 11,047 ratings — published 2011 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competit ion really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8,129 ratings — published 2008 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki (Goodreads Author), Shawn Welch (Goodreads Author) 4.17 avg rating — 2,673 ratings — published 2012 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki (Goodreads Author), Peg Fitzpatrick (Goodreads Author) 3.55 avg rating — 2,703 ratings — published 2014 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services – Practical Innovation and Strategic Lessons for Entrepreneurs and Visionaries by Guy Kawasaki (Goodreads Author), Michele Moreno 3.99 avg rating — 1,278 ratings — published 1999 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us 3.71 avg rating — 916 ratings — published 2012 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life 3.94 avg rating — 679 ratings — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 409 ratings — published 1995 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Macintosh Way 3.94 avg rating — 363 ratings — published 1989 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Guy Kawasaki wrote a new blog post How Rebecca Bloom Is Helping Women Take Back Their Health Welcome to Remarkable People.We’re on a mission to make you remarkable. Helping me in this episode is Rebecca Bloom.Rebecca is a force for fairness in Read more of this blog post »
Nov 20, 2025 01:15AM · like

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Quotes by Guy Kawasaki (?)

“Pursuing your passions makes you more interesting, and interesting people are enchanting.”
― Guy Kawasaki

tags: charisma, curiousity, passion

42 likes

“Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players. But B players hire C players, and C players hire D players. It doesn't take long to get to F players. This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies.”
― Guy Kawasaki

31 likes

“Steve [Jobs] proves that it's OK to be an asshole... He just has a different OS.”
― Guy Kawasaki

27 likes

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Polls

August 2024 Group Reads - Category: *Romance"
PLEASE ONLY VOTE If you intend to read and discuss the book with the group.

Fangirl Down (Big Shots, #1) by Tessa Bailey

Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey[author:Guy Kawasaki|6953499]

6 votes, 28.6%

Change of Heart by Kate Canterbary

6 votes, 28.6%

Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1) by Chloe Walsh

Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh

5 votes, 23.8%

Changing Tides (Sandcastle Cove, #1) by Amber Kelly

Changing Tides by Amber Kelly

2 votes, 9.5%

All's Fair in Love and War (Miss Prentice's Protegees, #1) by Virginia Heath

All's Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath

1 vote, 4.8%

Fable of Happiness Book One (Fable, #1) by Pepper Winters

Fable of Happiness Book One by Pepper Winters

1 vote, 4.8%

Beyond Sunrise by Candice Proctor

0 votes, 0.0%

21 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
PRSA Philly Book ...: Do you need to swear to enchant people?	1	7	Sep 12, 2011 05:32AM
Challenge: 50 Books: Catherine B's 50 Books in 2011 post	27	52	Nov 30, 2011 12:27PM
Reading with Style: FA11 Reading w/Style Completed Tasks - Fall 2011	662	198	Nov 30, 2011 09:03PM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC!	2251	792	Nov 30, 2011 09:05PM
Romance Readers R...: READ-THE-SEASON SUMMER CHALLENGE: E-S-T-A-T-E	177	214	Dec 16, 2011 01:52AM
Romance Readers R...: 2011 A-Z Book Challenge	1158	1257	Mar 18, 2012 02:04AM
Coffee & Books: A-Z Title Challenge (on going)	135	193	Oct 15, 2012 11:09AM
Audiobooks: Headphones/earbuds	177	811	Jul 21, 2013 05:28PM
Coffee & Books: Ananda's Reading List, Challenges and Reviews	15	128	Aug 01, 2013 07:59AM

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Guy’s Quotes

“People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”
― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

190 likes

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”
― Albert Einstein

tags: adulthood, success, value

7079 likes

“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
― Roy Disney

418 likes

“[A] quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business."

(The Record Lie)”
― A.A. Milne, If I May

tags: independent-thought, quotations, quotes

801 likes

“What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.”
― Martha Graham

tags: image, perception, perspective

576 likes

More of Guy’s quotes…