Rules for Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services Book

Rules for Revolutionaries (1998) is a kind of crash course in guerrilla marketing told in a friendly, happy, and sometimes zany way. The chapters cover creating like a god, commanding like a king and working like a slave. I liked the freshness of the approach. Admittedly, the book took me all of about 90 minutes to read but I was totally pumped afterwards. I liked the warnings about Death Magnets and the Exercises - which seem to be a staple in his book because they are also present in The Art of the Start. What I appreciate most about this is that despite the fact that this book is over 13 years old, it reads as if it was written more recently. The same cannot be said for The Tipping Point which I just started but am already nearly bored with. In fact, the latter seems to probably be a less inspiring mix of the two Kawasaki books in this review. But, I digress. What sets these rules apart are their straightforward nature and practical sense. His best practices in the Creation process are great: date to find fault with existing products and services (a particular specialty of mine), go with your gut (I can also dig this one), design for yourself (interesting), shake and bake (very interesting), get on base and leave home runs to chance (hard for an impatient geek like myself), and ignore naysayers (another difficult but necessary one). Also great is the bibliography at the end of every chapter. Overall, an easy but both important and invigorating read.