Guy Kawasaki & Great Work
Find Your Great Work has only just made it into this world for you, but for me it’s been percolating away for a couple of years. One of the great pleasures of that time has been doing The Great Work Interviews, 20 – 30 minute conversations with people who make me think and who’ve got an opinion on Great Work.
Guy Kawasaki is one of those Names in the world of marketing and technology. His break was working with Steve Jobs and being an advocate for the Apple Mac although he’s hardly been resting on his laurels. He’s written nine books (The Art of the Start is a classic), starting numerous companies and is currently championing his latest project Alltop (a new and better way of getting the best information you care about from the web)
In this interview with Guy we talk about how Apple set him up (“I’ve spend the last 25 years coasting” he says inaccurately), the joy of being an entrepreneur, the importance of “engaging people who are seemingly not perfect” and what he sees as the three motivations for doing Great Work.
“I can sit and I can grind. There’s nothing magical about what I do”
One of the most powerful insights for me from this interview came when I asked Guy how he managed to do so many things – writing, blogging, Twittering like a crazy man, not to mention running various companies. What, I wanted to know, was the magical ingredient, the something-something that made him different.
You of course already know the answer – there IS no magic dust. In fact, Guy puts it down to the fact that he’s “willing to grind it out” as being a big part of what’s driven the success.
This ties right in to what Seth Godin says about The Dip, of course and is a theme picked up in Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art as well. Doing Great Work doesn’t mean sitting and waiting for the muse or just lying around having ideas. It’s about having the idea AND doing the grind.
=> Where do you need to grind today?
