Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life

Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life

<b>Silicon Valley icon and bestselling author Guy Kawasaki shares the unlikely stories of his life and the lessons we can draw from them.</b><br><br>Guy Kawasaki has been a fixture in the tech world since he was part of Apple's original Macintosh team in the 1980s. He's widely respected as a source of wisdom about entrepreneurship, venture capital, marketing, and business evangelism, which he's shared in bestselling books such as <i>The Art of the Start</i> and <i>Enchantment</i>. But before all that, he was just a middle-class kid in Hawaii, a grandson of Japanese immigrants, who loved football and got a C+ in 9th grade English. <br><br><i>Wise Guy</i>, his most personal book, is about his surprising journey. It's not a traditional memoir but a series of vignettes. He toyed with calling it <i>Miso Soup for the Soul</i>, because these stories (like those in the <i>Chicken Soup </i>series) reflect a wide range of experiences that have enlightened and inspired him. <br><br>For instance, you'll follow Guy as he . . . <br><br>  •  Gets his first real job in the jewelry business--which turned out to be surprisingly useful training for the tech world. <br><br>  •  Disparages one of Apple's potential partners in front of that company's CEO, at the sneaky instigation of Steve Jobs.<br><br>  •  Blows up his Apple career with a single sentence, after Jobs withholds a pre-release copy of the <i>Think Different </i>ad campaign: "That's okay, Steve, I don't trust you either."<br><br>  •  Reevaluates his self-importance after being mistaken for Jackie Chan by four young women.<br><br>  •  Takes up surfing at age 62--which teaches him that you can discover a new passion at any age, but younger is easier!<br><br>Guy covers everything from moral values to business skills to parenting. As he writes, "I hope my stories help you live a more joyous, productive, and meaningful life. If <i>Wise Guy </i>succeeds at this, then that's the best story of all."