Guy Takeo Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is an American marketing specialist, author, and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

venture capitalist. He was one of the

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

employees originally responsible for marketing their

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computer line in 1984. He popularized the word ''evangelist'' in marketing the Macintosh as an " Apple evangelist" and the concepts of evangelism marketing and technology evangelism/ platform evangelism in general. From March 2015 until December 2016, Kawasaki sat on the board of trustees of the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

, the non-profit operating entity of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

. Kawasaki has also written fifteen books, including '' The Macintosh Way'' (1990), ''The Art of the Start'' (2004), and ''Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life'' (2019).

Early life and education

Guy Kawasaki was born in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

to Duke Takeshi Kawasaki (d. 2015) and Aiko Kawasaki. His family lived in an area outside Honolulu called Kalihi Valley. His father, Duke, once served as a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official while his mother was a housewife. He attended ʻIolani School and graduated in 1972. Kawasaki graduated from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1976 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

. He then attended

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, but quit after about a week of classes when he realized that he disliked law school. In 1977, he enrolled in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degree. While there, Kawasaki also worked at a jewelry company, Nova Stylings. Kawasaki observed, "The jewelry business is a very, very tough business, tougher than the computer business... I learned a very valuable lesson: how to sell."

Career

In 1983, Kawasaki got a job at

through his Stanford roommate, Mike Boich. He was the chief Apple evangelist for four years. In a 2006 podcast interview on the online site Venture Voice, Kawasaki said, "What got me to leave is basically I started listening to my own hype, and I wanted to start a software company and really make big bucks." In 1987 he was hired to lead ACIUS, the U.S. subsidiary of France-based ACI, which published an Apple database software system called 4th Dimension. Kawasaki left ACIUS in 1989 to further his writing and speaking career. In the early 1990s he wrote columns that were featured in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' and '' MacUser'' magazines. He also founded another company, Fog City Software, which created Emailer, an email client that sold to Claris. A collection of namesake software utilities called ''Guy's Utilities for Macintosh'' (GUM), was published by After Hours Software in the early 1990s. An edition of GUM for PowerBook systems was acquired by Gordon Eubanks and was subsequently remarketed by Symantec as ''The Norton Essentials for PowerBook''. He returned to Apple as an Apple Fellow in 1995. In 1998, he was a co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures, a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm that has made investments in

Pandora Radio Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by the broadcasting corporation Sirius XM that is based in Oakland, California in the United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the " Music Genome Proje ...

, Tripwire,

The Motley Fool The Motley Fool is a private financial and investing advice company based in Alexandria, Virginia. It was founded in July 1993 by co-chairmen and brothers David Gardner and Tom Gardner, and Todd Etter and Erik Rydholm. The company employs over 3 ...

and D.light Design.Ostdick, John
Guy Kawasaki: Advice for Making Your Business Successful
. '' Success Magazine''. In 2007, he founded Truemors, a free-flow rumor mill, that sold to NowPublic. He is also a founder at Alltop, an online magazine rack. In March 2013, Kawasaki joined

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

as an advisor to

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

. His role was to create a

Google+ Google+ (sometimes written as Google Plus, stylized as G+ or g+) was a Social networking service, social network owned and operated by Google until it ceased operations in 2019. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challe ...

mobile device community. In April 2014, Kawasaki became the chief evangelist of Canva. It is a free

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

website for non-designers as well as professionals and was founded in January 2013. On March 24, 2015, Kawasaki joined

board of trustees A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. He stepped down at the end of December 2016. On April 25, 2017, WikiTribune mentioned him as an adviser. On February 26, 2019,

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...

released ''Wise Guy'', described as Kawasaki's most personal book to date. While the book is written as what could be considered a memoir, it contains a series of vignettes that include various personal experiences that Kawasaki says have enlightened and inspired him. In December 2019, Kawasaki created a podcast called Remarkable People. There are now over 90 episodes available including interviews with Jane Goodall,

Stephen Wolfram Stephen Wolfram ( ; born 29 August 1959) is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and businessman. He is known for his work in computer algebra and theoretical physics. In 2012, he was named a fellow of the American Mathematical So ...

, Andrew Yang and Sal Khan. Kawasaki has stated that he believed the podcast was his best and most under appreciated work.

Personal life

Kawasaki and his wife have four children: Nicodemus ("Nic"), Noah, Nohemi, and Nate. Nohemi and Nate are biological siblings whom the couple adopted from

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Bibliography

* '' The Macintosh Way'' (1990) . * ''Database 101'' (1991) . * ''Selling the Dream'' (1992) . * ''The Computer Curmudgeon'' (1993) . * ''Hindsights'' (1995) . * ''How to Drive Your Competition Crazy'' (1995) . * ''Rules for Revolutionaries'' (2000) . * ''The Art of the Start'' (2004) . * ''Reality Check'' (2008) . * ''Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions'' (2011). Portfolio Penguin, London. . * ''What the Plus! Google+ for the rest of us'' (2012) (only available on

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, Audible audiobooks, and other digital media via wireless networking ...

, iBooks, and on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

). * ''APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur—How to Publish a Book'' (2013). (Guy Kawasaki; Shawn Welch) Nononina Press . * ''The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users'' (2015) (Guy Kawasaki; Peg Fitzpatrick) . * ''The Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything'' (2015) Portfolio . * ''Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life'' (2019)

References

External links

*
Alltop.com
co-founder * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawasaki, Guy 1954 births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American businesspeople American technology chief executives American technology writers American writers of Japanese descent Apple Inc. employees Apple Fellows Hawaii people of Japanese descent Businesspeople from Hawaii Edu-Ware Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees members Google employees ʻIolani School alumni Living people Motorola employees Silicon Valley people Stanford University alumni UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni Writers from Honolulu American Wikimedians Shorty Award winners