Up and Running:

(Note: I posted this on Planning Startups Stories earlier this week. I’m crossposting it here because I think the Kindle opens up new opportunities, and it follows my post here on Kindle last month. Tim)

So response to the Kindle is heating up. I ordered one and discovered they’re back-ordered, not promising to deliver before Christmas. I’ve seen a thoughtful post suggesting that Amazon will regret not making it a more open system. And reviews on Amazon are only lukewarm.

The delay is OK with me; it wasn’t a gift. I just want it. I rationalize that I’ll be able to blog about it, but that’s just MBA rationalization. I ordered it because I want it. I did that in June with the iPhone, paid the $600 to get it the first day, and I don’t regret it.

But you realize, of course, that I will have to tell you about it when I finally get it. I’m looking forward to it. In fact, I already decided not to order a hard copy book from Amazon today because I see it’s available on the Kindle, and I want to wait for the Kindle version.

I’ve been an e-book fan since long before the Amazon Kindle. I’m proud of that. I like the idea of an e-book reader. I bought the old Rocket e-book reader five years ago (or so), and I was glad I did. Before that I bought my first PDA–maybe seven years ago–for its e-book capabilities, and I actually read several full-length novels on it before I went on to something else.

In the interest of full disclosure, that Rocket e-book was a gift for a teenage daughter with a reading addiction, at the rate of two or three books a week. It was in part a defense against, “Dad, can we go to Borders?”

“Download it dear, download it.”

The reception of the Rocket e-book reader was underwhelming. I thought my daughter was possibly the only user, so I wasn’t surprised when the content stopped coming. But I just did a web search and found somebody else who owned a Rocket e-book reader, and liked it:

I owned the first Rocket Reader(NuvoMedia) in Grad school and loved it, absolutely loved it. I found it versatile (I could also sink my own documents to it, as well as free e-books I found at Project Gutenberg. I could add notes and bookmarks). I read my first Dan Brown book for under two dollars, Angels and Demons, before he was discovered by the world.

That seems odd because apparently the Rocket was not a success. They stayed away in droves. I thought my daughter was the only user, so I was glad to see Rebecca’s post, but that doesn’t make it mainstream (sorry, Rebecca, but then you do call your blog “the eclectic musings of an oddball“).

And yet, times change, technology marches on, and here comes Amazon with a new thing. The big gimmick is that you’re not tied to the computer. You can download the books from anywhere that has a cell connection.

Meanwhile, David Weinberger suggests the new Amazon Kindle may be “a textbook example of how the strengths of closed platforms can quickly turn into a weakness.”

One thing Amazon has going for it is that Kindle e-books are cheaper than real bound paper books. Just a bit cheaper, unfortunately. They certainly aren’t taking Seth Godin’s recommendation for really disruptive marketing, which he titled You Won’t Find Me on Amazon’s New Book Reader. He makes a good point, but actually, I think I will find him there.

Meanwhile, on the Harvard Business Online site, David Weinberger says Kindle is going to fail because it’s a closed system.

Amazon’s Kindle e-book may turn out to be a textbook. A textbook example, that is, of how the strengths of closed platforms can quickly turn into a weakness. From a product perspective, Kindle addresses every key weakness of its predecessors …

But Kindle operates in a closed universe, and that’s why it probably won’t succeed in the long term as currently constructed.

Interesting coincidence, he finishes that piece by asking “How about iTunes? Where do you see openness encroaching next?” Meanwhile, I’ve just this week switched my music buying patterns from iTunes, which annoys me by controlling how many computers I listen to purchased music on, to Amazon, which doesn’t. That’s right, Amazon is the open-system vendor that switched me from iTunes. So it goes full circle.

Today I was working on another post (coming soon) when I discovered that Guy Kawasaki is hosting a downloadable PDF file with the first chapter and the index of his book Art of the Start, which I recommend highly. This first chapter is very strong. Get going, make meaning, be different, polarize, do something better, do it because you can, and so on. Great ideas about business ideas.

Searching for that, I also came across a Web version that seems to be, word-for-word, that first chapter as well.

So, if you haven’t had time to get the book, or you want a sample, or you simply want to see it right now while you’re browsing, these are some options.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, or already starting it, or just started it, or, for that matter, you’re running a business or you care about a business, here read The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki.

Here’s a quote, from the first chapter, under a subheading called “Make Meaning:”

The truth is that no one really knows if he or she is an entrepreneur until he or she becomes one — and sometimes not even then. There really is only one question you should ask yourself before starting any new venture:

Do I want to make meaning?

Meaning is not about money, power, or prestige. It’s not even about creating a fun place to work. Among the meanings of “meaning” are to

• Make the world a better place
• Increase the quality of life
• Right a terrible wrong
• Prevent the end of something good.

Goals such as these are a tremendous advantage as you travel down the difficult path ahead. If you answer this question in the negative, you mays still be successful, but it will be harder to become so because making meaning is the most powerful motivator there is.

Guy Kawasaki is the quintessential personal brand, and an excellent communicator. Art of the Start is a great book. I posted recently my classification of startups, and this is one that appeals to all three groups. As a co-founder of garage.com and more recently founder of truemors.com, Guy has real-world experience on several contexts, including as venture investor, as bootstrapping entrepreneur, and as expert on the sidelines.

I particularly like his emphasis on getting going, not hanging around waiting for something to be perfect. Other highlights include the chapter on bootstrapping — there’s too much talk of startups as always requiring loans or investors — and the art of the pitch, the art of the business plan, and the art of being a mensch.

-Tim