Book Review & Giveaway: Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki Thumbnail

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

A book review by Dr Dean Burke (@DrDeanBurke) from  The Millionaire Nurse Blog

I was excited to get a review copy of Guy Kawasaki’s newest book, Enchantment.  The book is being released March 8th.

I have been getting his tweets @GuyKawasaki for some time, and knew he had varied interests. And have heard him interviewed and read about him at Success Magazine.

A little about Guy’s background:

He was born in Hawaii, and went to school at Stanford.  He learned to sell in the jewelry business, and was hired by Apple Computers early in his career. At Apple, he developed his chops in “Evangelism” with sales and marketing!

Since his Apple departure, he has been involved in many aspects of the tech world and venture capital.

The VC folks loan  money for a stake in a small company-taking huge risks for even huger (yes I made that up) rewards!

He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com-you’ve seen those ubiquitous Alltop badges- and Enchantment is his tenth book!  Note: He was also offered a position as the CEO of Yahoo when it was still under a couple billion market cap and turned it down.

The Book-Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki:

Enchantment’s subtitle is “The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions!”  Guy uses marketing principles similar to Seth Godins, social psychology research espoused by Robert Cialdini,  and sales techniques of Zig Ziglar, and mixes it up with his own proven know how, into a 2011 heady and  ready California brew.

If you are ready to improve your success at motivating your followers/employees to change  behavior in a non-sleazy, YAKEZIE way: this would be a great place to start.

Enchanting Enchantment Chapters

Chapters that spoke Enchantingly to me:

  • Chapter 2-Likability-I consider myself a pretty , likable, down-to-earth kinda guy.  But I am an introvert, so occasionally I get the he’s too big for his breaches” treatment.  I also am not much of a “chatterer”.  I find it hard to make small talk.  This chapter gives tips from handshakes,  smiles, and dress through sharing your passions and appropriate use of profanity (a little in the right places can provide enchantment, cussing like a sailor, not so much!)
  • Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are about gaining trust, getting prepared, and launching your product or service.  All with good tips on these subjects.
  • Chapters 8 and 9 were my favorites. Chapter 8 discusses  How To Use Push Technology. Chapter 9 similarly goes over the use of Pull Technology.

Push Technology-This is the use of media,  such as twitter , presentations, and even that most ancient form of communication-email, to push your message to people in a way that engages them most effectively.

Pull Technology-Pulling people to you-using Facebook, Linked-In, and You-Tube gets your message out effectively, and inexpensively.

  • Chapters 10 and 11 show you Enchantment techniques for you to use as a Boss and on your Boss.
  • The final chapter-12 helps you to learn when Enchantment techniques are being used on you, perhaps in an inappropriate manner.

The book also has a fairly extensive bibliography and index.

Negatives: Not many. I will admit to being very tired of Al Gore being used as an example of anything.  Al hypocritically blew his green credibility with me with his Castle-sized mansion and his copious use of jet fuel….But I am still a skeptic when it comes to global warming, climate change. Not imposing your own values is one of the sub-titles in chapter 2.  I promise to leave the Reagan examples out of my next book! (maybe…)

Follows His Own Advice

It is important to share that Guy follows his own advice regarding answering his own email, in a responsive and mannerly way.  He has a great sense of humor, and it shows in his writing (which I find  indispensable in a self-help book.)  Nothing is dryer than a pompous know-it-all telling you how only he can fix your life- in a humorless fashion.

In summary, I recommend reading Enchantment, and even more importantly-as a cheap skate who gets most of his books at the library-buying this book.

Enchantment is one book that is already filled with yellow highlight, and bent pages (I know it’s a bad habit….) I will be putting it’s principles in place as a personal finance advocate.

Let me know if you have any questions.

A Contest- 3 Free Copies of Enchantment to give away!

And don’t forget an interview with Guy Kawasaki is up at The Millionaire Nurse Blog.

Thanks for reading,

Dr Dean