The Art of the Start

The Art of the Start is a popular business book written by Guy Kawasaki. It focuses on entrepreneurship and key points about starting a business, bootstrapping, and pitching new ideas to potential investors.

Kawasaki opens by listing the five most important things an entrepreneur must accomplish.

1. Make Meaning: How will you make the world a better place?
2. Make Mantra. Forget "long, boring, and irrelevant" mission statements.
3. Get Going: Build something. "Don't focus on pitching, writing, and planning".
4. Define Your Business Model: "You have to figure out a way to make money."
5. Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks): Compile a list for each of these to keep you "on track when all hell breaks loose".