Look Who Just Walked In

Welcome to our global party at LeWeb. It’s always strange to realize it’s easier to see someone who happens to live 20 minutes across town from you back home, by going to a conference in Paris.  Go figure! I guess at home you get so caught up in stuff, booking time for coffee even with a best friend is a challenge.  It’s one of those things about conferences I really love.

In August, we had an amazing party in Half Moon Bay, CA thanks to Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki, to celebrate the launch of my novel about entrepreneurs, Founders Less Than Three.  Some of the earliest bloggers and other new friends attended and rocked the place. Now we’re together again in Paris in December.  I’ve been traveling through Europe since Nov. 9th talking about and reading from my book in Italy, Austria, Germany, France and next week I go to the UK.  

On my trip, I’ve met an amazing army of startup warriors in the EU, women and men at accelerator programs, co-working spaces and all over.  They’re not too different than their comrades in the US in their go-for-it attitude. But, I thought Guy’s advice yesterday when he was interviewed by Loic at @LeWeb was spot on –- don’t copy any US startups, be unique and be yourself!

I’ve met so many of my friends in tech through blogging and conferences. I live in Boston.  I’ve never lived in the San Francisco Bay Area but when we come to a conference like @LeWeb we see friends from there all over the world, as if we’d created a country all our own. Welcome to our new union of #makers and shakers. Don’t be shy, if there’s someone you want to meet, go for it. Take time to say hello with two more conference days left.

John Lennon: One Person Can Change the World

If you ever wonder if one person can change the world, remember John Lennon today.  As I get ready to take the TGV up to Paris to join the amazing crew at @LeWeb, I think of someone ending John Lennon's life so early and it really is a loss.

Never doubt how much you can change the world.  As we gather at @LeWeb every single person brings their energy and inspiration to share with others to make the next ten years a time of startling innovation.  Share that desire to make a difference.



Looking forward to hearing the inspirational speakers including pals Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Gary Vaynerchuk as well as our amazing hosts Geraldine LeMeur and Loic LeMeur.

Top Ten Mistakes of Entrepreneurs by Guy Kawasaki

I think you might like this.  I thought it was awesome.  Guy actually gives you 11 mistakes since he likes to underpromise and over deliver.

Check it out!

How to Keep On Keeping On

Found it!  Cleared my desk and found the three most important pages from APE, Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch's book on self-publishing.  I printed them out last summer and they surfaced again just when I needed them most.  When it comes to writing books, they are so right on here:

How to Continue:
-- Control your doubts,
-- Remember the value you're adding to peoples' lives.
-- Ask for help.
-- Don't hide under a bushel.
-- Write every day.
-- Embrace the pain.
-- Don't let successful writers awe you. 

How to Finish:
-- Edit on paper.

Paper!  Wow!  I remember that stuff and it works so well!

And didn't Guy also recommend drinking tea and eating gobs of toast with tangerine marmalade on tough mornings when it's hard to get started?  Let me take a look at the book again, I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned

Yes, confession time, I need another month to finish my Kickstarter book, Founders Less Than Three and I'm officially slipping my March 31 deadline today. I hate slipping deadlines, but I have two very good reasons.

1. Sheryl Sandberg

2. Guy Kawasaki

So it goes like this.  My book Founders Less Than Three is about a brave, bold, female entrepreneur just the kind of person Sheryl Sandberg is writing about in her book  Lean In  which was released March 11, 2013. I have the chance to meet her this week and more importantly, meet all the people (women and men) inspired by her book and get a sense of what they are thinking. I need to experience all that and incorporate it in my book. I need to "lean in" to her literary launch happening this month, watch up close and publish my book AFTER experiencing it. When I set my deadline last year, I didn't realize her book was coming out so close to the date.

I am seeing her twice this week in Boston and I need to connect with the crowds of people at her events even more than with her. I see her Thursday in Brookline and Friday in Boston.

And as for Guy Kawasaki, he's a pal and I love the new book he just co-authored with Shawn Welch,   Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur -- in fact, he's nice enough to call me the "mother" of the book in the acknowledgements.  I haven't actually started using all his good advice on how to get out there and social media market the heck out of it.  If I don't follow his lead and get cranking on marketing my book using the ways he and Shawn have made so easy to understand and follow, I'm an idiot.  I've just been writing it (not promoting it) and that's not enough anymore when it comes to this new world of ebooks.  So I need this month to work on the launch of the book. (Yes, Guy, I should have been doing it all along! Mea culpa!)

Also, I plan to blog every day in April about the book, just to give you an idea about how these things work.  Keep an eye on this blog. Some of it will be thrilling and happy, some down, depressing and dark, but I know i can get this thing out there and can't wait to complete it. I keep two mantras next to my screen -- Perfect is the enemy of good -- and the one that really is kicking my ass today, Steve Job's famous -- Real Artists Ship -- ironic I know.

Most Fun Ever / Working with Guy Kawasaki

One more APE fan!

Of course, I want to thank Guy and Shawn for mentioning me in the acknowledgements of their book APE, Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. Before I get going on why it's so much fun working with him -- I must stop and ask you -- did you read his book yet!? Go get it!

We met when I worked on Enchantment since I was one of many other excellent contributors to the book and his social media push for the book. I really didn't know all that much about him. I knew he was an Apple Evangelist for the Mac. I knew he'd done 9 books before Enchantment. I knew he was smart, but I didn't know how funny he was, or how ANNOYING he can be.

Seriously, he is as annoying as some brainy younger brother who is always asking you questions about why something is done the way it's done and why not try something new.   I use the word "annoying" here as a high compliment, since he is relentlessly innovative. There's not one thing he takes for granted.

He's the original "push the envelope" guy and "think out of the box" guy and "why not" guy. I'd worked with him on his book Enchantment, met him online, met in person, connected with him on social media often, then worked with him on the What The Plus: Google+ for the rest of us and still, for some odd reason, had never heard him speak at any conference. He speaks at lots of events and conferences, and I was busy most times he was in town to speak, but then I finally heard him speak in Boston after knowing him for about two years.

Maybe I'm a little critical of speakers, because I was involved in putting on events and hearing many speakers at Harvard Business School Publishing and at TTI Vanguard. I figured he would be good. I did not expect him to be TERRIFIC. He's serious, smart, funny and hilarious at times. He also speaks the truth when it needs to be spoken, which most people don't do. So this makes him even more fun to listen to. Anyway, if you have been busy and have some good excuse for not having read his last few books, I forgive you, but go get them! Read them! Enjoy them! I know you will!

People Going Gorillas for APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch

I know a few million of you have probably already bought and read APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur - How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch which came out last night at midnight Pacific Coast Time, but for the rest of you, what's taking you so long? Just kidding, a little, but this is a book that so many people will find

FUN
FUNNY
INFORMATIVE
INSPIRATIONAL
INSPIRING
THOUGHTFUL
VIGOROUS
VISIONARY and
WONDERFUL!

Full disclosure, I know Guy and Shawn and worked with them on the last book, What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us, so I am a friend. Guy gives me cred in the acknowledgements section of this new book for just about forcing him to write it, so I am biased. But this book has so much more to offer than I thought it would in the beginning, I'm seriously impressed. It's so useful and practical, as well as amusing and inspiring, which you can count on from any Kawasaki book. As I wrote in a review of the book on Amazon, I can't think of anyone who shouldn't read this book. If you're a reader it's a must own. If you're a writer, it's essential. If you're a publisher, you can't live without it. And of course, entrepreneurs will love it.

Guy Kawasaki New Cool Stuff

Guy Kawasaki's set up a mailing list if you want cool stuff about his upcoming books and other projects he's been working on.  Just go to this link.