Guy Kawasaki: Make Meaning

“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.” 

I’ve been writing a small number of articles about Entrepreneurship particularly about Technopreneurship and somehow I got some helpful and motivating ideas to start my own business.  I’m pretty sure that on one of my articles, I had mentioned there the main reasons why I wanted to set up my own—and Making money is on the list. Well, honestly, I love the idea that owning a business will give you the ability to earn much more money than you are likely to ever earn in your day-to-day job. And also considering the fact that it would be better to be your own boss rather than doing what you’re told. However, recently I learned that this reason must not be the essence of entrepreneurship. People having this kind of principle are the people who most likely fail. This knowledge was based from the talk of the awesome man named Guy Kawasaki to the Stanford Technology Ventures Program in Stanford University. Guy Kawasaki, in case you don’t know him, is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He was once an Apple Employee helped to market the Macintosh way back 1984. Currently, he is the Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, a seed-stage and early-stage venture capital fund that willing to invest in extraordinary entrepreneurs who have the ability to build great teams and great companies.

                This guy was first introduced to us by our facilitator through a video clip. A 2:52 minutes lecture that talks about the core or real essence of entrepreneurship. He said that the true essence of entrepreneurship is about making meaning. According to him, making meaning first would probably make money, but making money first would not probably make meaning which means you won’t make money. Since all of us or most of us dreamt of starting our own business, having the right reasons for staring a company must be given vast importance.

 

Wrong and are the most common reasons in starting up a business

                Actually, there are a lot of reasons that encouraged people to establish their own business, and the most common of them, as I mentioned, is about “making money”. Many people started a business without considering the things that must be considered. They are the people who constantly keep their sight into themselves and not to the people that surrounds them. These people are also the cause of the increase in business failures every year.

Here I gathered most common reasons (which I learned were wrong) that most of the starters consider as motivations:

-To get rich quick and won’t have to work much

Judging by their behavior, most people have an obsession with wealth. Politicians promise to create it, most popular magazines are filled with gossip about those who have it, and the average person spends much of their adult life trying to obtain it. We are creatures obsessed with money, partly for what it can buy, but also as a thing of value in it. Money is a massive motivator for an entrepreneur. Dreams of wealth are what attract people to start their own businesses; chasing those daily, weekly or monthly targets keeps you on your toes and gives you constant new goals to shoot for, and the desire to develop and grow a business to reap the rich financial rewards is strong. However, thinking about money first would not bring you a sweet success since it would make you focused only on the quantity and not on the quality; this would soon bring you to your downfall.  Remember that the world of business is full of risks and challenges.

 

- So I can have more time with my family and friends

The most commonly held fallacy about entrepreneurial life is that owning your own business will somehow offer you more freedom.Anyone who responds with the “it’s for the freedom” answer either has never owned their own business and has a troublingly fantastical view of the responsibilities of such a position, or alternatively has just successfully completed their exit strategy making them instant millionaires. Either way private investors are likely to consider this response to mean that their money would be best offered elsewhere.

You can assume that all private investors will know that the life of an entrepreneur is far from easy, and that any suggestion of freedom is likely to indicate inexperience or a lack of drive, neither of which should you be advertising if you’re hoping for their financial support.

-so I can be my own boss and no one can tell me what to do

                As a successful business owner you can name your own schedule. Vacation? Days off? Take them whenever you want. No one can say anything when you come in late, leave early, or take a three-hour lunch. If your business is a successful, well-oiled machine you can do what you want and you deserve to do what you want for all the hard work you’ve done! Ultimately this can mean more time with your family (maybe you’ve even employed your family). Also, if you have enough wealth from your business you can afford what you need when it comes to healthcare options and you aren’t tied down to what a company is offering you. However, you will always have responsibilities, but if your business is successful the responsibilities become less of a burden. Things eventually fall into place. Part of it can be fun! You want to be your own boss so you can make the decisions. You decide how to market your product. It’s a big responsibility because you’ll either fail or succeed, but it’s a fun responsibility because you’re in charge! As your own boss you take on a tremendous amount of responsibility. First, you’re responsible for making your dream a success. That’s a lot of hard work. Secondly, you’re responsible to your investors (that includes family who have invested their future in you). Finally, if you have employees it is your responsibility to make sure they are doing their jobs and that the business is doing well enough to keep them employed. Bills must be paid and payments must be collected. Marketing and advertising is another responsibility. You have to be sure all these wheels are turning all the time. A well-oiled machine takes time to build and takes constant maintenance. You didn’t want to become your own boss so your life would be less stressful, did you?

Topic note:

I believe that reasons for launching a business will encourage you to do better, pick you up when you’re pushed down, and allow you to be proud of what you have achieved that’s why it is very important that we should start our business in right reasons. Now, how can we identify and know the right reasons/reason in stating up a business? Here are the learnings I acquired from the talk of Guy Kawasaki that might help you:

We should make meaning first

Creativity and innovation are not ends in themselves. Their ultimate objective is to create meaningful new value. In today's article, let's get a better understanding of the concepts of value creation and meaning. 

Guy Kawasaki relates the following advice to would-be entrepreneurs: "The core of entrepreneurship is about making meaning. Many people start companies to make money — the quick flip, the dot.com phenomenon. I have noticed that those companies that are fundamentally founded to change the world, to make it a better place, are the companies that make a difference. They are the ones that succeed. My naive and romantic belief is that if you make meaning, you probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you will probably not make meaning and you won't make money. So you need to make meaning — that should be the core of why you start a company." 

Similarly, making meaning — and not making money — is at the core of creativity and innovation. 

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. 

For example, in the context of Bangkok, you probably agree that opening another spa or internet cafe does not create much value, while coming up with an innovative traffic and transport concept for the metropolis represents a significant value proposition. As Guy Kawasaki points out, making meaning is all about making our world a better place. We can achieve this noble objective by following one of three paths toward meaningful value creation: 

- increase the quality of life

 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 

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. 

Conclusion:

"Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success," said Thomas Edison. Like Guy Kawasaki, the world's greatest inventor understood: To make money, first focus your innovation efforts on making meaning. Make it your prime motivation to engage in creativity and your main judgment criteria for innovation. 

References:
http://blog.angelsden.co.uk/index.php/2010/11/top-5-reasons-for-starting-a-business/
http://thinkergy.com/resources/articles/true-innovation-is-about-making-meaning.html