Top

Career Do-Over: Interview with Serial Entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki

February 9, 2009 by sparktalk 

By J.T. O’Donnell

Guy Kawasaki is a serial entrepreneur. What’s that? It’s a person who has started several successful start-ups. What I love most about Guy is that he isn’t afraid of sharing his secrets to success. He’s honest and funny (when you read his answers you’ll see what I mean). While others might want to keep their insights close to the vest, Guy shares and gives daily to his followers via Twitter and his blog, which is called, How to Change the World.

In fact, Guy was one of the first people I ever followed on Twitter. I learned about him through his latest venture, Alltop.com, a site that lists the best blogs by category. Alltop.com is like an online magazine rack and I highly recommend it as a place to look for insightful resources – especially, when it comes to your career. CLICK HERE to visit Alltop’s Career Section.

Here’s what Guy had to say about his own career:

1) What did you study in college, and then, knowing what you know now, do you wish you had studied something different? If so, what would it be and why?

I tried to be a pre-med, but I fainted during a tour of the Stanford Medical Center–I am not making this up. Plus, I couldn’t handle all the math and physics courses that doctors need to take for God-knows-what reason. In my quest for an easy major, I found psychology, and the rest is history.

With hindsight, maybe I should have majored in computer science so that I could know when entrepreneurs are bull shiitake-ing me although it’s not clear that I would need a computer science background since entrepreneurs are lying whenever their lips are moving.

2) Tell us your career journey post-graduation through now in less than 200 words. Then tell us: If there was one thing you could do differently in that journey, what would it be?
III
After graduating with a psychology (not pre-med major) from Stanford I “attended” the UC Davis School of Law for only two weeks because I just couldn’t stand it. I may be one of its most famous almost-alumni! Maybe if I had stuck to pre-med, House would be based on me. Or Denny Craine if I had been a lawyer.

After that, I went to UCLA to get an MBA. I got into UCLA and Northwestern, but my mama didn’t raise no fool and below zero winters weren’t in the cards for me. While at UCLA I worked part-time counting diamonds–literally counting diamonds. While my buddies went into investment banking and consulting, I stayed with this jewelry manufacturing firm and got the greatest lesson in selling that a person could. Much of my success is because I learned how to sell in the jewelry business–not to mention my command of Yiddish.

From the jewelry business I went to Apple after a short stint in a software company. It was short because the company was acquired, and it moved to Atlanta. Atlanta held as much appeal to me as Evanston, Illinois, so I went to Apple because of nepotism (that is, my college roommate hired me), started a few software companies, went back to Apple, started Garage Technology Ventures, and also created an “online magazine rack” called Alltop.

Oh yeah, in 1994 I turned down the opportunity to interview for the CEO position of Yahoo. That was a $2 billion mistake. Are you sure you want to interview me?

3) Name 1-2 things you’ve learned to date about career that you think young professionals (ages 18-40) would want to know.

1) Your first few jobs after college don’t really matter so chill out. You’re aren’t going to stay at these jobs very long unless you are total suckup who wants to be the youngest–albeit miserable–partner in some New York firm. I didn’t exactly plan to go from counting diamonds to funding tech startups if you know what I mean.

2) Ultimately, if you’re living right, kids will bring you the greatest joy in life. Certainly, your greatest joy will not come from money, houses, cars, boats, whatever. In fact, I could make the case that all of these are barriers to true joy. At the end of the day, you really should do what you love to do not what makes the most money.

Guy Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an ³online magazine rack² of popular topics on the web. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to receive our content by e-mail (no SPAM, just career strategy) by clicking here now…
Like this article? We'd be grateful if you'd share it with a friend!
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts:

  1. T.A.P. into CAREEREALISM (Get Free, Personalized Help from Career Experts) (FYI – To enlarge viewing – click on 4...
  2. Tips for Breaking Into Venture Capital Field? Dear J.T. & Dale: I was recently downsized and...
  3. iPhone App Tracks Path to Career Success…One Hour at a Time! By J.T. O’Donnell This week on C-REAL-TV, I interviewed Ray...
  4. THIS is How To Make the Most of an Opportunity By J.T. O’Donnell When presented with opportunities in life,...
  5. 4 Tips to Answering Tough Interview Questions Correctly By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Rob Taub From blatant … “Greatest weakness”;...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Filed Under: Career Advice (Articles), Choosing a Career Path, Climbing the Ladder & Managing Up
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

  • Timothy Merchant
    I’ve always liked the saying “you should really do what you love”. Usually this is from people that have already been successful in their careers and don’t have to worry about money. Although my generation may be a little more materialistic than others in the past, and true you don’t need a fancy car and big house to be happy you still need to make money to survive. Yes it is important to do what you love but with the economy how it is today and not looking to get any better for the class of 09’ you really need to keep your options open.
  • Michaela DeRoche
    "Certainly, your greatest joy will not come from money, houses, cars, boats, whatever. In fact, I could make the case that all of these are barriers to true joy."

    I love this statement! You could say turning down the offer to interview for CEO of yahoo was a mistake BUT if it's not something you would find intrinsically satisfying then in my book you chose the right path. Is that how you feel?

    With the economy how it is today, I feel like I am destined to sit in a cubicle from 9-5. I am a very social person and sitting alone for eight hours would be misery. However, you gave me hope that a great job will come my way at some point and my first few jobs won't define my destiny.
  • To me this interview stands as testament to the fact that it is alright if you don't know what you want to do in or after college. In the summertime i was fortunate to have a great job as a limousine driver, and in my time working I have met countless young businessmen and women that loved to share advice from their life experience with a young college student like myself. The one thing that all these passengers had in common was that they always said, "If I knew where I was going to be now, I would have taken the classes I liked and done what I loved to do." In short, the lesson that I gathered from this was that a good career comes with following your passions and interests, and I hope that anyone else who reads this interview will see how important that can be.
  • Andrew Hennessy
    I really admire Guy's honesty and the fact that if he's not happy, he has no problem switching things up. More often than not once someone is in college or med school, people stay there regardless if he or she is happy or not. In a relatively short perdiod of time, he went from a pre med student to serial entrepreneur. That is quite a shift.

    I cannot agree with Guy more that if you're not happy, then do something about it...don't wait for someone to approach you. Everyone worries about what they are going to do right out of college but CAREEREALISM.com says it best "Every job is temporary."
  • Reading this article reassured me that I don't have to feel pressured to "pick one job and stick with it" for the rest of my life. Sometimes college students get anxious when it comes to picking a career (I personally changed my major twice before finding my niche) and they feel that they will be stuck in a career that MUST parallel their degree. It's also refreshing that you acknowledge that success can come from more than just money, cars, and big houses. Although these amenities are nice, they certainly shouldn't be the sum of which defines you.
  • Greg Barrette
    "Your first few jobs after college don’t really matter so chill out."

    With the way the economy is right now, I think that quote gives most current young professionals hope. And hope is exactly what they need in such a competitive job market.

    Also, I cringed when I read Guy turned down the interview for the CEO position of Yahoo. After seeing all his success, maybe Yahoo feels regret for letting him turn them down? That's one way to look at it.
  • I am very impressed with this article and admire that Guy did what made him happy. Many people today would have suffered through law school just because it seemed like the "right" career to do when in reality, he would have been miserable his whole life and probably would not have been as successful because he would not be doing what he enjoyed. It also gave me hope that even though he was not clear in his young adult life what the right career was, he found what it was that made him happy and in the end he realized that "Ultimately, if you’re living right, kids will bring you the greatest joy in life. Certainly, your greatest joy will not come from money, houses, cars, boats, whatever. In fact, I could make the case that all of these are barriers to true joy. At the end of the day, you really should do what you love to do not what makes the most money."
  • Shannon Carroll
    Thanks Greg for pointing out Guy's words of hope. As a graduating senior, it's comforting to know that my entire life path does not depend on the job I'll be desperately searching for come May.

    I'm also struggling with the decision of immediately attending grad school or finding a job right after graduation. I keep weighing the pros and cons and I'm at a stand still. Is it better to work for a while and gain valuable experience in the "real world"? OR should I head right to grad school and get a leg up on my competitors by having a master's degree? I'd be curious to know Guy's opinion on grad school and if gaining the extra degree helped reach his goals and opportunities more quickly?
  • It's always reassuring to read success stories that begin as not entirely perfect. It just goes to show that everything works out if you continue to put in the effort and want the best for your life, not necessarily your wallet. I really admire that you mentioned how much joy your children have given you, not many people directly correlate their happiness to the presence of their kids in their lives. Having a family is an important factor in planning out your life and finding a career that fits you means being able to give yourself the availability in your occupation to achieve that dream, whatever it may be.
  • Josh Neal
    “At the end of the day, you really should do what you love to do not what makes the most money.”

    Guy is right! At the end of the day, if I was asked how much money I make? I would like to be able to tell someone that I make a difference in peoples’ lives rather than a ton of money. Making a difference in someone’s life is much more important than money. Take one of my professors for example, with the way the economy is right now he has lost a third of what he had saved for retirement, but he is able to say that he makes a difference in his student’s lives everyday. To me, that is more valuable than money.

    Today, in our culture people judge other people on their professions and how much money they make. Does anyone see this as a growing problem?
  • John Shea
    I am curious to know how much Guy's college degree helped him in becoming as successful as he is today. After watching a recent video which I found at http://www.careerealism.com , I became curious as to how good of an investment college really is for our futures. The video was a story done by 20/20. It talked about how many high school graduates find themselves doing what they have always been told was the right thing, and going directly to college, so they could get a good career when they graduate. Four years later, they receive the diploma they have worked so hard for to find that jobs are not as easy to come by as they once thought. Guy states that he graduated with a psychology degree, which does not seem like it would have much to do with the jobs that he has held since graduating. He says that a lot of his success came from the knowledge he gained in working in the real world, as a diamond seller, but did not mention how the the knowledge he learned in school benefited him. I applaud Guy at his incredible success, but ask this question on behalf of many college students, "Are we making the right investment in going to college?"
  • My college degree has been very valuable--it taught me how to think and just as important brought me in contact with people who have helped me (and I have helped) to this day. Eg, if I didn't go to Stanford, I would have never me the person who hired me at Apple, and my life would have taken a very different course.

    For sure, go to college. Study what you love. You have decades to work for bozos after college.

    Guy
  • Guy Kawasaki was recently proclaimed to be "The Strongest Supporter of Enterpreneurs on The Whole Damn Net" (see: http://www.TheWholeDamnNet.com) so I was quite surprised he made the flip comment about "entrepreneurs lying whenever their lips are moving."

    I know something about entrepreneurs. We are enthusiastic and passionate. We are optimistic and often prone to exaggeration. We will without fail accentuate the positive, and often turn a blind eye to the negative. Those are just a few of the characteristics every entrepreneur needs in order to become a success.

    As for Guy's $2B decision to turn down the interview for Chief Yahoo: I'm happy he made that decision. I think the world is a much better place because of what Guy has contributed. Consider all the books he's written, all the people he has motivated with his remarkable communications skills, all the businesses he's helped to build. Nothing he could have possibly accomplished at Yahoo! could come close to matching the scope or the scale of the positive impact he has had on so many.
  • J.T. O'Donnell
    I actually took Guy's comment as he was making fun of himself. I like that he doesn't take himself too seriously as an entrepreneur. I agree with you that we are an enthusiastic and passionate bunch - but that strength has its weakness, and as Guy pointed out, it gets misinterpreted sometimes.

    I agree - Yahoo's loss was our gain! There is so much powerful, FREE information made available by leading entrepreneurs like Guy, but you have to take advantage of it. However, I think the average person doesn't have the desire or discipline to read daily and develop their knowledge level. I wrote a post about the 10,000 Rule a while back, it explains exactly why someone like Guy is at the head of their profession - http://www.careerealism.com/10000-hour-rule-its...

    Thanks Tom for the great contribution!
  • Cool interview.

    There may be hope for me yet. Thanks for sharing this story. I've also been a "serial entrepreneur" for the past 30+ years. More failures than successes, however. But I won't let that stop me. It's interesting that some of us go to college and get a degree other than that which we first intended so that we can get a job totally unrelated either to our original interests or our degree.

    I've been inspired by Guy Kawasaki's books as well as the stories of other SUCCESSFUL entrepreneurs. That's why I keep on keeping on. I'm an editor-writer.... I do freelance writing, freelance editing, and I love to play with photography. I'm now learning how to "monetize" these skills.

    This is especially important since I'm currently unemployed and looking (but also working on developing my sidelines). (Maybe I should forget about looking for a "job" and just put the big push on my entrepreneurial endeavors!)
blog comments powered by Disqus
Bottom