Tech evangelist Guy Kawasaki reveals 10 learnings from Silicon Valley to be a successful entrepreneur

Drawing on his three decade-plus stint in Silicon Valley, along with his long association with Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, one of the world’s best-known tech evangelists, entrepreneur, author and investor, spoke about the lessons learnt from America’s technology nerve centre.

Speaking at the Global Business Summit on Friday, Kawasaki laid out his 10 principals, touching upon topics ranging from innovation to social media that not only define the Valley, which has incubated some of the world’s largest technology companies, but also a possible blueprint to succeed in a highly-competitive environment.

Kawasaki’s presentation is particularly relevant to India, given the rapid growth of the country’s technology-based startup ecosystem.


“You cannot ask customers how to create a revolution. Customers can only tell you they want better, faster and cheaper whatever they’re already getting from you. They cannot tell you how to revolutionise your business, they can only tell you how to evolve it,” Kawasaki said.

Kawasaki, who famously left Apple twice, reiterated that the ability to innovate is perhaps just a part of the journey. Allied to that is the ability to understand the purpose of the company, an the need to jump the curve. The 64 year-old cited the examples of Kodak, Polaroid and Smith Corona - all leaders in their respective segments, that have now either shut shop or have faded into obscurity.

“Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. (But) how many of you are using Kodak digital camera today? None of you… Kodak defined its business as a film or a chemical company…If you define your business as preservation of memories, you jump to the next curve,” Kawasaki said.

Kawasaki burst into prominence in the early 80s, while working with Apple on its legendary Macintosh personal computer, is often credited, along with Jobs, of creating a cult like reputation surrounding Apple products.

The Honolulu-born American of Japanese descent is currently serving as the chief evangelist of Australian online, graphics design company, Canva. Kawasaki, who has authored more than 13 books, was adamant in his view that startups and entrepreneurs have to “aim high.”

“People want to work in companies that, according to Steve Jobs, are going to “dent the universe.” Kawasaki pointed out. “The way the Macintosh was positioned was that it was trying to preserve freedom.”

According to him, entrepreneurs have to focus on shipping their product, at least the first iteration of it, as fast as possible.

“Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn likes to say that if you don’t cringe when you look back at version one of your product, you did not ship fast enough,” Kawasaki said.