Japi's Blog

Guy Kawasaki at The Houston Technology Center

Guy Kawasaki came to Houston yesterday evening to give a talk at The Houston Technology Center.  I had seen him give a talk called a couple of years ago at the NTC 2006 in Seattle and it was fantastic!  So I was very excited about the event.

I was not dissappointed... Guy was phenomenal, gracious, hilarious, brilliant and just freakin' AWESOME!  His presentation was called "The Art of the Start".  Guy was amazingly gracious in staying wayyy longer than anyone expected. He took every question and even went partying (from what I understand) with some local Kawastalkers (no need to name names). <grin> 

Guy also showed us alltop.com which is a site that covers a variety of interesting topics... he specifically showed us:

• http://career.alltop.com/
• http://moms.alltop.com/
• http://egos.alltop.com/
• http://twitter.alltop.com/
• http://humor.alltop.com/
• http://adoption.alltop.com/

We've posted some pictures of the event on the HTC Web site.

I was also really excited to run into some old friends and met new ones... here's a short list of some of the folks I encountered last night (sorry if I missed anyone):

1. Erica O'Grady
2. Christine Selleck
3. Imelda Bettinger
4. Laura Mayes
5. Tracey Lee Wallace
6. Monica Danna
7. Holly Gunn
8. Kelsey Ruger
9. Richard Yoo
10. Dwight Silverman of The Houston Chronicle
11. Marc Nathan of The Houston Technology Center
12. AND I GOT TO MEET.... are you ready?... Jenny Lawson... The Bloggess!

Since several other folks have blogged about this event, I wanted to do something slightly different.... I decided to copy and paste a bunch of the tweets that were posted on Twitter during the event.  Some of them are obviously funny, others you have no idea what they mean... but here's the list, enjoy:

1. she's in beta with our second child
2. Laura Mayes of skirt has been called out several times... Freakin' awesome
3. Most people think rich and smart parses to smart. No. Most of the time it parses to 'lucky'
4. There is no reason for the survival of Apple but that there is a benevolent God
5. 2 kinds of bozos. rich and famous are the most dangerous bozos. rich/famous usually parses to lucky
6. Don't let the bozos grind you down
7. Find the influencers. the higher you go in most orgs, the thinner the air. harder to support intelligent life. CX0 are dumbest people who sucked up the longest. smartest are the influencers. not ultimate decision makers
8. i believe in god because there is no other explanation for the survival of Apple than a benevolent god
9. seed the clouds ... how you make the rain. "let a hundred flowers blossom". plant fields of flowers
10. Sales fix everything
11. Embrace your evangelists
12. embrace your evangelists... people who get it and want to help you because they believe you/they are making world a better place
13. don't ask someone to do something you would not do
14. lower the barriers to adoption. flatten the learning curve - "plug it in and it works
15. Hire people who are better than you
16. hire better than yourself ... that's very hard to do, but everyone knows they should do it
17. apple hired me because they were willing to ignore the irrelevant
18. hire infected people - infected with a love of what you
19. 10/20/30 rule of powerpoint - 10 slides is optimal number of slides in powerpoint presentation
20. holy grail of marketing - provide something only you can do that provides high value
21. All you white people look alike

So there's the list.... and if you ever have the opportunity to watch Guy Kawasaki... do anything and everything (even slashing someone's tires) to be there.... he's worth every second!

Glenn Beck - America's Addiction

I had a the pleasure of meeting Glenn Beck about 3 years ago on a visit to Philadelphia when he was doing his live, nationally syndicated radio show.  The opportunity came about because his radio show was looking to use our Tendenci software.  Glenn was very gracious and sat down to talk for about 10 minutes during a break on his radio show.

I came across an article he wrote called "America needs a 12-step program" which describes how the government used to be afraid of the people... and now it's the other way around.  He suggests a six-step program to get the country back in the hands of the people:

1. Admit we are not powerless.
2. Believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
3. Decide to take our power back.
4. Make a complete and fearless moral inventory.
5. Admit our wrongs, and our rights.
6. Be ready to remove our defects.

The article is dead-on target! We DO need to take back our government.

Body of War - A Powerful Documentary

Ellen Spiro (a friend of my brother Joaquin) and Phil Donahue have produced and directed a powerful documentary called Body of War. 

It is the story of a young man, Tomas Young, who joins the military to fight the evil doers and is wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.

Here's a synopsis from the film's Web site:

"Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. Body of War is a naked and honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man."

Watch the preview below:

Last Speech by Dr. Markin Luther King Jr

40 years ago today Dr. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, TN.  He was a great American who has left a legacy of peaceful resistance against inequality and injustice which is still alive.

His final speech (see excerpt below) sounds prophetic as he mentions that he is not worried because he has been to the mountaintop.  He continues to state that he would prefer to live a long life, but that he's not concerned about that. 

It was a very sad day for the world to lose such an amazing and valiant human being.