So You Want to Be a Start-Up

Silicon Valley's done-it-all tour guide Guy Kawasaki surveys entrepreneurship and throws in a little attitude. Bogle's lament; the plants making your pants

Illustration by Terry Allen for TIME

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...

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