{"id":902,"date":"2019-02-25T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.detling.us\/?p=902"},"modified":"2019-02-25T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T17:01:03","slug":"wise-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.detling.us\/?p=902","title":{"rendered":"Wise Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Back in 2013, while I was working as Human Resources Director for the City of Medford, Oregon, I was pleased to be asked to be an early reader of an interesting publication called APE: Author-Publisher-Entrepreneu<\/em>r by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch.  This was an amazing guide for budding authors and even experienced ones seeking to move into the digital age. Of course, that meant I got added to Guy’s collection of followers, and this year, he asked if I’d like to join a group of reviewers for a pre-publication copy of Guy\u2019s 15th<\/sup> book: Wise Guy<\/em>, to be released Tuesday (Feb. 26) by Penguin Random House\/Portfolio Books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guy says Wise Guy<\/em> is his most personal book, and is not a traditional memoir but a series of vignettes. It reflects a wide range of experiences that have enlightened and inspired him.  He tells stories from his childhood in Hawaii, his education at Stanford and UCLA, his first job in the jewelry business, work for Steve Jobs at Apple, and his adoption of surfing at the age of 62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guy, who served, as he puts it, two \u201ctours of duty\u201d for Apple (from 1983-1987 and 1995-97), writes extensively and distills his experience there into 11 points of wisdom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Only excellence matters.
\u2022 Customers can\u2019t tell you what they need.
\u2022 Innovation happens on the next curve.
\u2022 Design counts
\u2022 Less is more.
\u2022 Big challenges beget big accomplishments.
\u2022 Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.
\u2022 Engineers are artists.
\u2022 Price and value are not the same thing.
\u2022 But value isn\u2019t enough.
\u2022 Some things need to be believed to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While expressing that he \u201cmade a mistake\u201d at not returning for a third tour when asked by Steve Jobs to run Apple University, he clearly says if he had stayed at Apple, he wouldn\u2019t have started companies, become a venture capitalist, advised dozens of other entrepreneurs and written more than a dozen books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The points distilled from his years at Apple are instructive, but they are only four pages of this easily read 260-page book though the book contains more on his Apple years. Guy covers everything from moral values to business skills to parenting. As he writes, \u201cI hope my stories help you live a more joyous, productive, and meaningful life. If Wise Guy<\/em> succeeds at this, then that\u2019s the best story of all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his story telling, I found most enlightening his 10 lessons in the chapter he calls Postpartum:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Get high and to the right (be unique and valuable).
\u2022 Adopt a growth mindset (among others, he recommends Carol Dweck\u2019s book Mindset, <\/em>which is a fascinating work of its own).
\u2022 Embrace grit (achieving success is hard work).
\u2022 Smile (there\u2019s no such thing as being too nice).
\u2022 Default to yes (say no only after contemplating information)
\u2022 Raise the tide (life is not a zero-sum game).
\u2022 Pay it forward (do good works and make the world a better place.
\u2022 Examine everything (healthy skepticism not negativity)
\u2022 Never lie, seldom shade (lying takes too much time and energy).
\u2022 Enable people to pay you back (fostering self-worth in others).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thoroughly enjoyed Wise Guy<\/em>, and enthusiastically recommend it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is where you can buy it:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n