Monday, February 4, 2019

Lessons from Wise 'Guy'


Being a TEDx'er, watching TED and TEDx talks is one of my favorite pass time. Not only you come across brilliant ideas and concepts, but you met so many people virtually, who share the same passion, vision and ideas.

Recently I stumbled upon a new TEDx video, video by Guy Kawasaki. I am sure, you must have heard his name if you are a techie, digital media person or a budding entrepreneur. If not, he is a smiling Japanese US person, marketing specialist and venture capitalist. He had his own stint with Apple and with Mr. Jobs.

In his recent TEDx talk at Palo Alto, he defines his 10 point tactical strategy to get things done-

  1. Get high and to the right. Whenever you have an idea, you have to question and ask yourself where are you placed on this 2 X 2 matrix of uniqueness and valuable. Always, one has to be in the upper right corner.
  2. Adapt a growth mindset. Guy recommends this book - Mindset by Carol. Dweck
  3. Embrace grit.
  4. Smile - yes, there's no reason to put up a show of a tough / angry guy.
  5. Default to 'yes' - Isn't it surprising? We are wired to default 'no'. Saying yes may open plethora of opportunities.
  6. Raise the tide - It's no longer the zero sum game.
  7. Pay it forward - always do the work without expectations, rewards. He himself believes that there's a karmic scoreboard in the sky.
  8. Examine everything. Don't blindly accept or reject anything. Feel free to examine each and every thing. This is one of the most critical points to ponder and act. We all have preconceived notions and often fail to expand our horizon of opinion beyond that.
  9. Never lie or shade the truth- there's only one version of truth which is much better to handle than lying and losing hair on covering up the lie with another lie.
  10. Enable people to pay you back - tell them frankly how they can help you rather than leaving them guessing. Read the book ' Influence'. 

He concludes his talk by asking people to complain less, stop overthinking about folks and their bad intentions. Just relax, enjoy and have fun in whatever you do. 


Here's the link to his TEDx talk. Enjoy watching!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2oZ2ucI1mA