Selling the Dream

Damn you, Guy Kawasaki!

You kept me up till 2 AM because I couldn't put down your book about evangelism. You've rekindled something in me which I forgot I always had. You've set me off to open new and old doors and probably now spend more sleepless nights!

Now I know more about the stages of evangelism: sowing, cultivating and harvesting. Now I know better how to recruit, train and let loose an army of evangelists. Now I know why evangelism works better than plain vanilla marketing.

Thanks to your book, I appreciate the importance of an evangelism plan -- which is a bit like a project or marketing plan, but more focused on selling a dream and not just a product. Our small company needed such advice because the services and products we create are actually in furtherance of a vision to make life easier for knowledge workers and learning organizations.

The combination of insight, wit and elaboration through stories and parables made the book such a pleasure to read. It was both informational and inspiring.

I used to be an activist, so your points about evangelism resonated with me. I know a couple of social causes that would do well to read your book, Selling the Dream. Open source advocates would do very well to study the principles and techniques you outlined. Entrepreneurs should all buy a copy of this book to sustain and guide them.

I guess losing sleep over a good book is okay, given that it's very useful. So, let me revise my opener by saying, "Thank you, Guy Kawasaki!"