Ryan Says…

I recently started reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog:
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

There is a reason why this guy is a successful author (8 books), accomplished silicon valley veteran, and frequent speaker. He has a knack for being incredibly entertaining while at the same time incredibly informative. Not only does he know what he’s talking about (through his experience at Apple, as an entrepreneur, and an early stage venture capitalist), but he also knows how to talk about it.

As an example, here is a small excerpt that I particularly enjoyed. In this blog entry Guy talks about some of the typical comments VCs hear from entrepreneurs when they are pitching their idea, and points out how ridiculous they are:

“Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.”
Larry Ellison has his own jet. He can keep the San Jose Airport open for his late night landings. His boat is so big that it can barely get under the Golden Gate Bridge. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are flying on Southwest out of Oakland and stealing the free peanuts. There’s a reason why Larry is where he is, and entrepreneurs are where they are, and it’s not that he’s big, dumb, and slow. Competing with Oracle, Microsoft, and other large companies is a very difficult task. Entrepreneurs who utter this lie look at best naive. You think it’s bravado, but venture capitalists think it’s stupidity.

From: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html

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