Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
Author: Guy Kawasaki
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1591842239
ISBN-13: 978-1591842231
I don’t read business books. I don’t. Business books and self-help books are the two types of books that make my eyes glaze over and have me thinking longingly about polyhedrons or hyperbolic geometry models in crochet or cooking or taking a walk, anything but reading that book. I most certainly don’t review business books, or at least I didn’t till now and I blame Twitter.
Have you heard of Twitter? I’m quite addicted to it. I think it’s a marvelous tool filled with wonderful things and people. About six months ago, I quit my job and had lots of time for Twitter where before I had only dabbled. I started off following the foodies and the book lovers like me, then my varied interests took root and my friend list on Twitter blossomed. I met Guy Kawasaki on Twitter and had no idea who he was. He was just some guy with 18k followers so that made him interesting to me. Social media fascinates me and he seemed like someone who was knowledgeable about it. Long story short, I ended up doing some freelance consulting for him with Alltop.com and it’s been amazing.
For an information junkie like me, Alltop is heaven. Working with Guy and Neenz behind the scenes compiling topics has been just a dream. Talk about super nice people. I know. I know you’re thinking that I love the book because of Guy but that’s not the case. When he told me he was sending me his next book there was an inward groan. Like “oh brother, I’m going to HAVE to read a business bool,” but at the same time, I was infinitely curious. What would Guy write about? What would he say? What were his core philosophies? Would the Guy I knew from Twitter and emails be the same Guy in the pages of a book? He had managed to pique my interest in a book that normally I’d have not only no interest in but would steer clear the hell away from.
Reality Check arrived at my door one morning last week. I found I was excited about it, but there was still that shiver of dread as I looked at the business-like dust jacket. I opened the book thinking, “This is gonna be painful.”
Ten minutes later, I was laughing my ass off at Fake Steve Jobs’ Introduction 2.0. Then I got sucked into the rest of the book. I literally unplugged my computer and didn’t stop reading until I was done. Then I re-read it, slowly going over parts that had made the most impact.
Reality Check hit home on a lot of levels. I’ve been working in the corporate world for over 20 years. I’ve worked for huge corporations and small companies. I’ve seen all the mistakes, heard all the bullshit or bullshitake to quote Guy. I’ve watched people with really great ideas fall on their asses because of fundamental things they overlooked. I’ve seen people spending money on advertising over PR and audited the expense reports of engineers. Everything Guy said in his book is TRUE and it makes perfect, logical sense.
It’s not a book; it’s a blueprint for success in whatever you do. Not planning starting your own company? Fine. You can still use this blueprint. Not interested in starting a start up? Ok, cool but his common sense approach and intelligent outlaying of simple business facts will get you ahead in your day job. Read his interview with Penelope Trunk about Career Guidance.
My favorite chapter was How to Suck Up to a Blogger. The title alone had me laughing and once I got past that, the advice was sound and sensible. Guy knows what he’s talking about. One of the things that struck me most was that Mr. Kawasaki really, really understands people and what make them tick. His book is funny, smart, well thought out and completely necessary for just about anyone’s library. Buy it, read it and then read it again. Actually, buy two because you’re going to highlight, mark up, post-it note, dog-ear and completely destroy the first one using it so much.
