Assignment 3

your reflections/learning's/thoughts on the video clip of Guy Kawasaki: MAKE Meaning study

...mean what you mean..tell it straight what that it means... and do forward the things that MAKE MEANING... pig pig

Guy Kawasaki, Guy Kawasaki, GUY???I wondered, we already had this answered during our lecture time in techno but then I just then realized there are a lot more I left out about understanding the real though of that video clip. First I thought who is this Guy Kawasaki anyway? And I saw in his site this “Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Venture, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.”.A straight-talking (and very funny) business "evangelist" who worked at Apple Computer from 1983 to 1987, Guy's job was to spread the word about the Macintosh. Now he runs Garage.com, a venture capital firm looking for the next big thing. . He really may be a very good technopreneur but what would be the most important aspect that he can be sited as one of the best examples of a technopreneur? And so the facts about his video came into my mind.

Make meaning in your company, a video clip by Guy Kawasaki saying what are the things you can do to change, and everything is not always about the profit. According to him he learned things the hard way and the core essence of entrepreneurship is making meaning. Too many people jump ahead or lose sight of the core elements of business success when starting a business. Guy keeps it simple and straight foward. For there are so many people that wants to create a company for the money that they can earn from that company. But the truth is if you make meaning, you will probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you will probably not make meaning and you won’t make money. Interesting right? There are a lot of things to be needed to be done to make things right so that we can change other peoples lives. Several entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing on the unimportant tasks of creating and maintaining a business, rather than on the Milestones. This is very important should be taken seriously by all. “Weaving a MAT” will keep a company on track and focused on their business model and ultimately their true meaning for providing solutions to their customers. he believes in the power of enterprise to make the world better. According to Guy, “Evangelism starts with the desire to make meaning.” When you focus on the money, you focus on the wrong thing. You have to first make meaning. You need to mean something to the world and to your customers. “The root of great companies is make meaning vs. make money.” For they’re not trying to sell you a computer. They’re challenging you to change the world. That’s making meaning. Kawasaki suggests that the most successful start-ups aren’t preoccupied on making money, but rather they are focused on changing the world in some unique way…fundamentally on making the world a better place. While he describes his belief as perhaps naïve and romantic, in my opinion, the most successful firms and leaders incorporate a hefty dose of big dreaming as rocket fuel for their efforts. Dream big and the nature of work changes to the art and thrill of creation. Fail to identify a dream to chase and work becomes a series of endless tasks without meaning.


Now, exactly what does making meaning connote? And how can we do it? Making meaning implies adding significance or value to something; doing something that is novel, relevant, appropriate, worthwhile and highly useful. We should start learning how to make meaning, there are 3 ways to make meaning and this three things are the key for a great organizations. There really is only one question you should ask yourself before starting any new venture: Do I want to make meaning? Consider, do I want to make the world a better place? Increase the quality of life? Right a terrible wrong? Prevent the end of something good? Create the next curve; don’t improve on sameness.
Make meaning, not money. This is a very important distinction and should be the basis for any starting company. Entrepreneurs must solve a solution, which will improve our quality of life. This is a perfect foundation for a company as they begin to dive into the consumer world and create services/products. In fact, this is part of knowing your consumer and knowing what they need. This will draws on the basics of marketing and business, yet some are more focused on making money that they forget about providing products/services that add value and increase our quality of life. Lets start with

1. Make Meaning
Focus on making meaning, not money. If your vision for your company is to grow it just to flip it to a large company or to take it public and cash out, "you're doomed". Kawasaki says that great companies are built around one of three kinds of meaning:
1. Increase the quality of life. Make people more productive or their lives easier or more enjoyable.
2. Right a wrong. A variant on the above. Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.
3. Prevent the end of something good. Preserve something classic or historical. Save the whales.


Lets elaborate what does increase quality of life means. Well for me, as we can all see that there are a lot of people who wants to increase the quality of their life simply by working hard enough to have a comfortable lifestyles. But for Guy Kawasaki he wants that people be more productive of what they have. Things does not come easily. We all must keep in mind that we should always make meaning, they were motivated to make money but they are motivated in changing the world and challenging other people to be creative and productive and this will be a great motivation to kept people going , waking up in the morning thinking what would be the best thing to change people's lives.

Many truly great innovations in the history of humanity greatly increased the quality of people's life. Can you imagine how our daily lives have changed by the invention of the personal computer? What about mobile phones or the internet? How about air conditioning or electricity, not to mention airplanes, cars, and other means of transport. We need to ask: How can we increase the quality of life of our customers with what we're doing? Over 100 million products sold testify to how the iPod has increased the quality of life for music lovers around the world.

Right a wrong. Find something that is wrong and do something to make it right. Why be part of the problem were in fact you can be one way to make a solution for the problem.Take note of problems you encounter as you go through life on a list and look for ways to turn these problems into business or innovation opportunities. What annoys you and needs to be fixed? What does not work as well as it should? What is poorly designed and needs improvement? What unmet and often unarticulated need has not yet been addressed by the market? What really sucks and could be changed for the better by you? Online music is a good example: P2P-sharing services allowed people to easily find their favorite songs online. In October 2003, Apple righted another wrong by offering a legal way to acquire songs online with the opening of the iTunes Music Store.

Prevent the end of something good. As the world changes, people vary in their perception of which of these changes are good and bad. Is there something good, beautiful, or wonderful that is about to come to an end due to changes in the environment? If you just cannot stand the fact that something good is about to end, turn the problem into an opportunity to start a business, an innovation project or a social movement. For example, in Africa, national parks with premium safari lodges help to preserve the beauty of the African wilderness while creating job opportunities for the locals and tourism income for the country and its entrepreneurs.

I make meaning, you make meaning, he makes meaning,wouldn’t you like to make some meaning, too?
cheers