The Surest Path to Making Money In Business
What is the surest path to making money in business?
On October 24th 2004, Guy Kawasaki provided the answer.
Here’s what he said:
The core, the essence of entrepreneurship is about making meaning. Many people start companies to make money: the quick flip, the dot-com phenomena. And I’ve noticed … companies that are founded to fundamentally change the world – to make the world a better place, to make meaning – are the companies that make a difference. They are the companies that succeed.
My naive and romantic belief is that if you make meaning, you’ll probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you probably won’t make meaning and you won’t make money.
Kawasaki says there are three ways to “make meaning”. You can…
1.) Increase the quality of life
2.) Right a wrong
3.) Prevent the end of something good
Kawasaki’s personal experience working in the Macintosh division at Apple centered on this philosophy:
I can tell you with total certainty that we were not motivated by making money. We were motivated by changing the world, making people more creative and productive. We were trying to increase the quality of life for the Macintosh user. And that was a great motivation. It kept us going through many, many difficult periods. We were waking up in the morning and thinking how we could change people’s lives.
You’re in a position to do the same. What is your crusade? What do you want to change in the world? What cause do you stand for?