Guy Kawasaki on the 12 lessons he learnt from Steve Jobs

In recent years Guy Kawasaki has become known as a writer, speaker, marketing guru and venture capitalist, famous for books such Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, Reality Check and The Art of the Start.

But Kawasaki is also famous for being the chief evangelist for Apple during two stints with the company that coincided with the two stints of late founder Steve Jobs.

In this TEDx speech given in early November, Kawasaki takes the audience through 12 lessons he picked up from Jobs, ranging from the profound (real entrepreneurs start selling their products even when they are not perfect) through to the more mundane (what font size to use on a presentation).

A couple of great points stand out in Kawasaki’s presentation.

One of the most counterintuitive is the idea that “if you truly want to change the world, you need to ignore your customer”.

Kawasaki argues that customers tend to define things based on what they already know – they want a faster, smarter, better version of what already exists. This means truly visionary products that are giant leaps forward that change an industry cannot come from listening to customers.

Kawasaki also says Jobs taught him that changing your mind is a sign of intelligence. There were times when Apple’s original product design or strategy was proven to be wrong and the company had to backtrack – being willing to do so was not a sign of weakness in the eyes of Kawasaki.

“If you change your mind, if you change the way you do things in response to the way that customers treat you or respond to you, it is a sign of intelligence and it will lead to success.”

Finally, there is his lesson that experts are clueless.

“There is a temptation to default to older people, people with big titles, people who have declared themselves experts. If there is anything that Apple has proven, it is that experts are often wrong.”

“Experts usually define things in established limits. I think you should fight those limits.”

Of course, you shouldn’t let this last point put you off watching this great video.