So You Want to Be a Start-Up

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

By Guy Kawasaki Portfolio; 474 pages

The Silicon Valley legend is a familiar one: A few guys tooling around in a garage come up with a killer app. The innovators become entrepreneurs with the help of venture capital and launch their product to immediate acclaim. Their company goes public, and they’re all instant zillionaires. Whoa, cautions Kawasaki, a Valley legend himself. It ain’t that easy. “Flailing, grinding, thrashing, and getting lucky are why companies succeed,” he says. And why entrepreneurial wannabes do too.

Kawasaki should know, of course. He has a formidable résumé: author of eight other business books (including the best seller The Art of the Start), entrepreneur, venture capitalist and blogger who rose to fame at Apple. In his new book, Kawasaki takes the role of mentor and big brother to those in start-up mode or even restart mode. At times he sounds like an irreverent Silicon Valley Emily Post; his highly readable book is an encyclopedia of proper behavior for entrepreneurs. The author eagerly teaches readers “how to suck up to a blogger,” “kick butt on a panel” and determine if the boss is a jerk.

Kawasaki likes his rookie entrepreneurs to be young, hungry and determined and sleepless. “Success takes crazy passionate people who believe they can change the world,” he says. “Success doesn’t take ‘professional’ and ‘proven’ people.” His ultimate role models are megasuccessful outfits such as Apple, Microsoft, eBay, Google, HP and YouTube. The author delivers inspirational tough love to his minions: “My theory is that when you’re young, you should work 80 hours a week to create a product or service that changes the world.”

He is happy to guide you through the whole geek life cycle–from raising capital to planning, executing, innovating, marketing and selling your killer app. He is an avowed enemy of what he calls “bull shiitake” and urges others to wise up fast. Toward that end, he lists the “top lies” of venture capitalists, lawyers, engineers, partners and CEOs. At nearly 500 pages, this tome is obviously not intended for a sitting; rather, dip in and out as the subjects move you. Kawasaki more than meets his stated goal of providing “hardcore information to hardcore people who want to kick ass.”

Enough. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life

By John C. Bogle Wiley; 276 pages

It’s hard to imagine a better time to publish a book that advocates moderation, balance and integrity in the business world. In this wise meditation, Bogle, the folk-hero creator of the first index mutual fund and founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group, deplores “our worship of wealth and the growing corruption of our professional ethics but ultimately the subversion of our character and values.” Directly in his sights: CEOs and hedge-fund managers who draw “obscene” compensation. At this time of plunging portfolios, it is a relief to be told that “enough” is within reach.

Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes

By Kelsey Timmerman Wiley; 272 pages

One day, while staring at a pile of clothes, the twentysomething author decided to embark on a quixotic journey and trace the garments to their countries of origin. His venture, often loopy (he carries his JINGLE THESE Christmas boxer shorts back to Bangladesh), takes him all over the developing world. His conclusion–after meeting Amilcar, Arifa, Nari and Ai–is that the reality of the workers’ lives is harsh: “When it comes to clothing, others make it, and we have it made.” Timmerman’s youthful exuberance carries this unlikely consumer tale.