Guy Kawasaki and McIntosh Way

Almost every person (usually at a young age) has a desire to change this world for the better. Alone for this arrange a revolution, other wars. However, in the so-called era of the scientific and technological revolution, some realize this desire through the introduction of technical innovations that give people previously unknown opportunities.

A graduate psychologist Guy Kawasaki - the future author of the book "The Art of Making Revolutions", was also among the people who wanted to change the world. In his first book, The Macintosh Way, Kawasaki cited the well-known riddle in the apple tale about how many employees a company needs in order to screw a light bulb: “An Apple employee takes a light bulb in his hand, and the world begins to rotate around it.”
However, the most important cultural layer for the Kawasaki story is in the title of “The Macintosh Way” ...

Macdo - Warrior's Way
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In this small book, illustrated with images of pagodas and samurai, not a single phrase is found that formally goes beyond Western culture. But think about it, Kawasaki called his book "The Macintosh Way", meaning by the word "way" the Japanese character "do" - the path to spiritual perfection through a special creative life. We have decided to write kendo, judo, aikido, tjado, karate-do. And in America, the taddo denote "The Way of Tea", etc. In Japan, the first Kawasaki book could be published under the title "Mac-to." It should be noted that Zen, which is widespread in the historical homeland of Kawasaki, implies the passage of the Path in the midst of human life, in the very boiling of events and human passions, including war. And Kawasaki himself defined the “McIntosh Way” as “the art of correctly doing the right things.” And at the same time, Kawasaki literally in each chapter makes the most important in Zen emphasis on maintaining the creative spirit of the company.

"The Macintosh Way" was published in 1989. This little paperback book presents the fundamental ideas of high technology. It is now called “The Mac Way” and counted as Apple’s Gospel. Evangelist - that was the name of Kawasaki's position in the company.

In Silicon Valley, where experts often move from one computer company of world importance to another, people who get to Apple get very special motivation and attitude, that is, the spirit of this company differs from the ideology of other companies of the same kind that are literally on the neighboring the street.

Rockefeller once said that business is a cross between sports and war. And many would subscribe to the words that business is similar to the Path of the Warrior (budo). Well, the book of Kawasaki, like Zen itself, is neither philosophy nor psychology, but the practice of life, allowing you to walk the Path unknown to a person who is heading towards his visible goal. As if to confirm this thesis, Kawasaki writes: “I publish my ideas and methods in this book for you to use. Let's not compete in the knowledge of strategy and tactics. Let's compete in their implementation. "

Ideas Kawasaki enjoyed and enjoy prestige among the leaders of the computer industry. And for ordinary Mac users who made a cult out of their “apple” friend, Kawasaki, whether he wanted it or not, he became a servant of this cult.

In Gaia Kawasaki, there is spontaneity, brightness, humor and a sense of beauty that simultaneously cause irritation and joy. Approximately the same qualities distinguish Zen. But Kawasaki, unlike the Buddhists, is very energetic, if not aggressive: “If the thought of greater accuracy occurred to the journalist for even one nanosecond, then I believe that a rare and remarkable event happened.” This is an example of his typical intonation.

Although we must be aware that the publications and speeches of Guy Kawasaki are often a game of beautiful words that need to be perceived with a humor. For the most part, they are just a vent for those who do not want to see the computer world made in Microsoft. So, in the days of the 95s, Windows Kawasaki published an article entitled “Plug & Play and Plug & Pray”, in which he rightly ridiculed the imperfection of the plug-and-play technology. The joke in the title was liked by many and was repeated many times by journals writing about the PC platform. But we note a funny fact that the pun “turn on and pray” came to the head of the Evangelist ...

Was there Zen?

As they say in a medieval Japanese proverb, "every story can be told in different ways." You can ask yourself: Are there any associations with Zen in Apple culture itself? One clue in the search for the similarities of these two cultures can be found: by the very fact of creating Macintosh in 1984, the computer industry first realized the main principle of Zen practice - relying on intuitive solutions and movements.

As an evangelist, I will say an evangelist ...

After Kawasaki left Apple, he was replaced by new evangelists. True, one of them, Rodney O. Lain, a popular Internet columnist who proclaimed himself “black guy Kawasaki”, committed suicide in 2002 ...
Dozens of specialized sites unite a lot of popular evangelists Apple. They often quote Kawasaki, but evaluate his statements ambiguous.
However, Apple has not offered to take the position of its official evangelist to any of them. Only Don Crab, a professor at the University of Michigan, a prolific freelance journalist who, by the way, answered with a firm refusal, received such an offer. Kawasaki had an “evangelist” written on his business card, but in the current staffing table this job is called the Apple Fellow. She is still free.
Maybe Kawasaki doesn't need a successor? Especially since Masintosh is dead, and Jobs is not yet.

Once at the MacWorld Expo, Kawasaki spoke after Jobs. And you would not envy anyone if he speaks after Jobs: Kawasaki talked about some new products, and the people began to quickly dissolve from the audience during his speech ... But for Steve Jobs, the title of evangelist is too small, he would rather claim the role of messiah.

Garage

It would seem that the profession of an evangelist allows people to discover all their talent, like no other occupation.
But the main thing Guy Kawasaki - the company " Garage ". It was formed as a logical continuation of its life position, including the task of changing the world. It was possible to change the world, remaining in Apple, and it was possible to help in the promotion of new companies operating in the field of high technologies. And now the fees of "garage" firms with which Kawasaki works are his main income.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from Guy Kawasaki's Art of Start :

“Excellent students do not hire excellent students. They hire high marks with a plus. Horoshist hiring troechnikov. And Troechnikov hired losers. If you start to hire horoshist, you will wake up one morning surrounded by zeros. This is what we call the breeding of boobies. Fight breeding doodles. "

“Ask women about your business model. I’m sure you don’t have to waste your time asking men about business models and business ideas. I think this is because men have a fundamental genetic flow, we have the killer gene. Men want to kill, we want to kill plants, we want to kill animals, we want to kill other companies, products. In many ways, this killer gene was suppressed by society. One of the places where he was not depressed is business. It is socially acceptable to want to kill the competition. If you ask a man if I should create a company to kill Oracle, kill Google, kill Microsoft, all men always say: “Yes! Great idea!". Women don't have that. So when you come up with an idea for business, ask a woman, don't waste your time asking men. ”

Tips for business startups from Guy Kawasaki published in 2007 on Habrahabr.

Guy Kawasaki's most recent publications are here .

And if anyone saw the full text of “The Macintosh Way” on the network, drop the link, please. In the nineties on macaddict.com (now maclife.com) a link to the title of the book “The Macintosh Way” pointedly led to Amazon. Now the same direction gives the personal site of Guy Kawasaki.

This article is like a doublet with my today's publication in Startups .