Do “What” to the Butt?

A point of clarification to the award winners of the my loop contest. I've sent most of you a copy of The Art of the Start, and I signed them “Kick butt!--Guy Kawasaki.”

Some people thought I wrote “Lick butt.” Once I autographed a book for a woman, and she asked me why I signed her book, “Nice butt!” (I can't remember if she had one or not.)

So just so you know, I sign my books, “Kick butt.” Not “Nice butt.” Not “Kiss butt.” And certainly not “Lick butt.”

And while we're on the subject of kicking butt, let me tell you a funny story. About six years ago, at the height of the dotcom hype, I owned a Porsche 911 Cabriolet. One day I was at a stoplight in Menlo Park, and a car full of teenage girls in the next next lane were giggling and smiling at me.

I'm thinking, “Guy, you've finally arrived: Even teenage girls know who you are--Macintosh evangelist, venture capitalist, author, speaker. How sweet it is!” Finally, one of the girls motions me to roll down my window.

I put down the window, fully expecting her to tell me how much she loves my writing, speaking, whatever, and she says, “Are you Jackie Chan?”

That incident made me establish a new goal to execute: that someday Jackie Chan will be stopped at a light in Hong Kong, and a car full of teenage girls will ask him to roll down his window. Then one will ask, “Are you Guy Kawasaki?”

By the way, he may do his own stunts, but I do my own blogging.

Comments

[Rika]

haha, very witty! I thought Jet Li too, definitely not Jackie Chan (see http://www.jackiechan.com )

[Dalif]

heh nice post.

To be honest tho, I thought Jet Li when I saw your pic for the first time yesterday. Jackie Chan didn't even cross my mind (I think Jet Li is cooler tho.. better actor too).

[Onlineshop Optimierung]

A very interesting site, I think. The Idea of Technometry was new for me but worth to be read and thought abot it (although I'm not a native english-speaker and have some difficulties whith this language)

[Johannes]

Dude, you're hilarious! Keep on writing

[Guy Kawasaki]

Alexander,

I read that book and liked it very much. If I'm not available, perhaps Jackie Chan can stand in for me. :-)

Guy

[Alexander]

Guy, last night I was finishing "Hard Rain" by Barry Eisler (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451212460/sr=8-2/qid=1140006308/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-1679605-1846355?%5Fencoding=UTF8).

I liked the protagonist (John Rain, Half-Japanese and half-American) and thought that one day I would like to make a movie based on these books.

The first person who visually sprang into my mind as a possible actor candidate for this role was... you. Not that we met, not that I know how you act (if at all). :)

Although Rain is an assassin (hm, why is it double "ass"?..:), he is a "good guy" (you see :) And he promotes the same good principles (well, he only kills the "principal" cause of a problem, and even then no women or children). And his name is part of "rainmaking" you mentioned in you one of your books.

Don't consider this as an offer, though... :) And please keep more posts coming, they are also a great read.

[CEO]

Japanese recipe how to become Yewish?
haha

[Dennis Balajadia]

HAHAHA! :)

[Compelligence]

I once received a lengthy SMS (text message) and I needed to clarify whose was it that she was talking about. I replied in one word. WHOSE? But I typed in WHORE (the R and S is the same key on the cellphone). I got an angry message asking me to justify why I called her a WHORE (boy, I had lots of explaining to do that day.)

[Mike Tanji]

Guy - You blew it! The proper response was: "Why yes, yes I AM Jackie Chan."

[Greg M]

Haha Great article Guy, how can it get any better than this? Licking butts, teenage girls and nice cars!

Once again great post!!

[Kendall]

Often when I write "Got a sec? " in an IM it actually type "Got a sex?" so now when I write that... I take a little more time.

[frankidurbin]

Not only was this funny - it reminded me how useless "spell check" can be. Once, in an email to a colleague, I signed an email "Good Lick" instead of "Good Luck". Sadly, spell check saw nothing wrong with my verbiage and sent the message as-is. Like your book signings, at least it was memorable!

[Adee Feinstein]

Since Jackie Chan is famous for originating closing title out-takes, how about a homage piece with some bloopers of your own?

Laissez les bon temps rouller!

[Dmitry Linkov]

That's really funny) Lol)

And the goal is good, i'm sure that you will succseed!
Good luck)

[ThePef]

Good luck on that one. Somehow I think that one may be somewhat unachievable. Maybe a car of middle aged nerds may ask you to roll down your window :)

[Rajesh]

haha .. nice post!!

another line from your blog that you can add to the "misinterpreted" list is:

"Let the good times roll - by Guy Kawasaki"

OR

"Let the good times roll by - Guy Kawasaki" !!

:):):)

You do write pretty well though.

[Jens Meiert]

That certainly is a great objective ;)

[femmebot]

Yikes! You do NOT look like Jackie Chan at all. Next time, tell them to take the All Look Same test: http://alllooksame.com/

[Creative One]

Gk, I just realized how great you are with title to your topics. It is very catchy and most certainly caught my attention. You are very good at getting people to focus on what you are writing or at least making people want to read it. Was this taught in markeing classes?

[Faisal Khan]

Great comment about the autographs. What made me laugh more was the Jackie Chan story!

Keep blogging.

FK

[Dax Dasilva]

My staff got you to sign one of our brochures for me at our booth at Macworld Expo since i wasn't there at the time and they know i'm a huge fan of your books.

Honestly, it took several squinted glances to convince myself that your note did not exclaim 'Lick Butt!' ;)

[Brett Payne]

Guy, you caught me by surprise and I found myself laughing outloud in a very public place. Way to go. Blog on, my brotha...

[Douglas H]

Oh, that's a good one. I also have horrible handwriting and people generally can't read what I write - hence why I've learned to be a fairly good typist.

[Doug Fleener]

Love the book signing story. I was signing books one day myself and I don’t have the best handwriting and a woman asked me why I wrote what I did in the book she just bought. I looked at it and realized than when I meant to write “Best of luck” I had left out the “of” so it looked like I had wrote, “To Jean, Bad luck!”

Also if you spent any time barbecuing you can tell them to rub their butt too!