Book Review- Wise Guy

Guy Kawasaki has a new book mainly about his own life and career. He is the son of Japanese immigrants to the U.S. and grew up in a modest Hawaii neighbourhood. His life changed when a school teacher spotted his potential and talked his dad into sending him to a better school.

It was not all smooth, there were a few wrong steps along the way, but then he took the chances life offered him, and went on to become an Apple employee (he had two innings there), an evangelist for their products, and then a consultant, author and so on.

I already use his other book (co-authored), The Art of Social Media, and consider him one of the original thinkers (Thought leader?) of today. Immensely talented and articulate, he shows you, among other things, why the U.S. has evolved to be the Mecca for talent from anywhere in the world. More than Europe in recent times.

He also has a chapter or two on his family and raising kids (he has adopted two), and why it is the most important thing in life. Worth a read! There are boxed "wisdom" items (life lessons) in each chapter too, if you like that kind of thing.

Create Something That Americans Want to Copy

Guy Kawasaki (a favourite author of mine) said this in reply to a question from an Indian interviewing him on TV in India recently. He also said the following-

On Fake news- It is whatever news you disagree with-only sometime later do you really know if its fake.

On the origin of Facebook- Facebook started because Mark wanted a date, and not because he thought the world needed a new method of communication.

On Entrepreneurs Selling Out- They want to make money, and improvement to people's lives is a by-product.

On Big Data- Big data does not have all the answers-it can also be all lies.

Successful Investing- Most investors don't know which idea will succeed. In retrospect, they claim that this idea was backed by a good team, blah, blah, blah.. For one (investment in) Google that succeeded, many failed.

Books That Have Impressed Me

The old ones are the Murakamis, and Ogilvy on Advertising, Maverick by Ricardo Semler. Umberto Eco's shorter essays are a new favourite. Comic stuff from Dave Barry or Woody Allen (he wrote too) is always welcome for an ATL (any time laugh).

Selfienomics, and The Art of Social Media (the latter by Guy Kawasaki), The 100-year-old-man who Jumped Out of a Window and Disappeared are some of the recently read books that were impressive. TED Talks by Chris Anderson was good also.

Naseeruddin Shah's autobiography, and Dev Anand's, were well-written. A biography of SD Burman that I got hold of at a concert in his honour was good, like a book about RD Burman I read earlier. I am a big fan of their music, making those reads all the more enjoyable.

This Way is Easier Dad by Harimohan, and Sreeram's Kalyug were ones from known people that I enjoyed reading. Attended the Pune launch of the former at Pagdandi, an offbeat book store.

Old favourites that I can re-read anytime are PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Asterix. Liked the new Sherlock based on the classic. Just started re-reading some A.A. Fair books. I like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe as a character too, in the mystery genre. Mr. Majestic is a fun detective story about a small-time Bangalore crook that I was gifted by Meghna, and liked.

My favourite Marathi author is the humourist P. L. Deshpande. Another teenage favourite was B.R.Bhagwat, who wrote the Faster Fene books- a movie was recently made with him as a hero.

Osho's books are also highly readable, and so are some of Jaggi Vasudev. J. Krishnamurti is also an old favourite.