Guy Kawasaki practices what he preaches

Guy Kawasaki just formally released his latest project. It’s called Alltop and it’s getting widely panned across the Internet. Michael Arrington doesn’t like it, and neither do these people. (Although some people like it.)

Alltop basically is simply lists of blogs and publications, organized by category. Kawasaki calls it an “online magazine rack.” The most popular criticisms of the project are that it’s a redo (of popurls and Original Signal) and that the format neglects all the benefits of RSS.

Eliminating a discussion of whether the site is good or useful or worthy of attention, I find this launch particularly interesting because I just started reading Guy’s book, The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything. And it’s not often that you get to read a book about starting companies while the person who wrote the book is starting a company. So here’s my take on that aspect of the launch.

(Major Disclaimer: I am only on page 31, so my analysis of the book is going to be weak, and is not the point anyway!)

Guy says: “Make meaning - create a product or service that makes the world a better place.”

Does he do it? I would say yes. According to the official announcement of the release, the “goal is to satisfy the information needs of the 99% of Internet users who will never use an RSS feed reader or create a custom page.” This is a pretty meaningful purpose, and one that I can really relate to as most of the people I know in my non-work life do not use RSS or even know what it is.

Guy says: “Make Mantra. Forget mission statements…instead, take your meaning and make a mantra out of it.”

Does he do it? Heck yeah. Check out this catchy mantra - “aggregation without the aggravation.”

Guy says: “Get going. Start creating and delivering your product or service….Don’t wait to develop the perfect product or service. Good enough is good enough. There will be plenty of time for refinement later. It’s not how great you start - it’s how great you end up…The wisest corse of action is to take your best shot with a prototype, immediately get it to market, and iterate quickly.”

Does he do it? YES! And I think that this is the No. 1 best thing about this launch. Guy didn’t wait until the product was perfect, refined, pretty and loved-by-all to launch. It was “good enough” and he let it fly. Now, he’s getting unbelievable feedback and commentary by everyone who is watching the launch. Love it or hate it, the feedback is real and immediate, and I bet that tomorrow he’ll be working on version 2.

Verdict: Guy Kawasaki practices what he preaches - at least what he preaches in the first chapter of his book.

Tags: AllTop, Guy Kawasaki, Original Signal, popurl, TechCrunch, The Art of the Start