Guy Kawasaki
Appearances
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
We're going to be in the Bay Area soon. We'd love to get together. So I talked to the person doing my social media with me and I say, isn't this the product you use to create graphics for our tweets? And she said, yes. And I said, well, do you like them? And she said, yes. I said, do you think I should help them? And she said, yes. So I met with them and one thing led to another. And now,
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
you know, thank you God for Canva. And this is my 16th book, which I've said 15 times, this is my last book.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
You could also make the case you could make the world a better place by turning your own life around.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
No, my very first book was called The Macintosh Way, and it explained the Macintosh division, what we were trying to do, what we learned from Steve. And at that point, I said, okay, I wrote down everything I possibly can know about That's it. End of writing career.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And I guess in a sense, writing 16 books is really very good evidence of a growth mindset because you cannot write 16 books about the same subject.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
We're going to get real transparent. Let's do it. So there's two theories. One theory is the Polish PR answer. The other theory is more of what's realistic. So I'll give you a smattering of both. At 69 years old, having done this podcast for four years, I really did interview remarkable people. I would put my guest list up against anybody's podcast. NPR, Joe Rogan, anybody.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I have just as good, if not better, a guest list. And I realized that, man, you know, guy, you have encountered a lot of wisdom, a lot of insights and a lot of value. But let's face it. You know, am I going to tell people, oh, go listen to 200 episodes, one hour each. And you'll you know, you'll hear what I have. And so I figured out that.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I have all this knowledge and I can filter it down even more. So in a sense, I have this moral obligation to take the lesson of Jane Goodall or Angela Duckworth or Carol Dweck or Stephen Wolfram or was and put it in a package that everybody can digest and use so that they can make a difference and be remarkable. So that's kind of the high road thing. The lower road answer is, you know what?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
There's royalty. So it's a combination of both. But as I say, when I'm gone, I want people to say, you know, I read Think Remarkable and it just changed my life and it helped me make a difference. And I owe some of my success to Guy. That would be a good legacy.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, Steve Jobs had a very famous Stanford commencement address in which one of the key messages he had is you can only connect the dots looking backwards, right? So when you're 18 and you major in English, it's hard to say, okay, I was thinking I majored in English because when I'm 69, I'm going to write a book, right? I mean, nobody can think like that. I'll give you the dots, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So, this sixth grade teacher convinces my parents to put me into this private prep school. In the private prep school, I did well enough to get to Stanford. At Stanford, I meet this guy, Mike Boych. Mike Boych is the guy that eventually hired me into the Macintosh division, despite my lack of qualifications. In the Macintosh division, I do well enough that I'm very, very visible and I'm tied.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
My reputation is tied to the Macintosh and Apple. I'm kind of living proof, Heather, that if you do one thing right in your life, you can coast the rest of your life. But that's a different subject. So now lots of people know about me because lots of people use Macintosh.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And in particular, I think it's the creative, innovative, artistic people who use Macintosh because you don't buy a Macintosh to crank Excel spreadsheets. So one day I get this email out of the blue and it's the director of the TEDx Palo Alto. And she says, I have Jane Goodall coming in for a TEDx and I'm looking for a moderator. She's looking for a moderator.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
She says, you know, you don't know me, guy, but I know you because I use a Macintosh. So would you like to moderate Jane Goodall? On TEDx. It's like, be still my heart. You're telling me I can interview the Jane Goodall for TEDx. Like, pinch me.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Yeah, right. So I canceled a paid speech. Cost me a lot of money. But man, you know, at the end of my life, am I going to say, you know, guy, if you had only made one more speech, you would have been happy. Or are you going to say, I got to interview Jane Goodall? You don't need to be too smart to figure out the answer to that question. So I interview Jane Goodall. We become deep friends.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
To this day, we're close friends. And so when I start my podcast, she's my first guest. All right. So now, I don't know about you, but the way I select what podcast I agree to be on, the first question is, who else have you had? I mean, if all you have is Joe Blow from Blow Consulting, who wrote the Blow Way podcast, You're probably not going to go on that podcast, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
You know, so when I'm asking Stacey Abrams or I'm asking Margaret Atwood or Stephen Wolfram or Neil deGrasse Tyson, please come on my podcast. The first thing they ask, maybe they don't ask it, but I know they're thinking it is who the hell else has been on your podcast? To which I say, well, maybe you've heard of some of my guests like Jane Goodall and And guess what?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Nobody ever says either to me or to themselves, why should I go on his podcast? He has losers like Jane Goodall, people you never heard of. So once you have Jane Goodall, then you get Margaret Atwood. Then you get Woz. Then you get Bob Cialdini. Then you get David Ocker. And guess what? It gets easier and easier. And pretty soon, you are buying. You're not selling.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Basically, but you know, can I tell you that I purposely worked at the Macintosh division because I knew that someday I was going to start a podcast and people would have to have heard of me. So they would say yes.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I think I'm that smart. God bless you. But it ain't true. And I think there's like an important lesson here that I kind of believe you should default to yes. You should always say yes. You should help people because you just never know. I would also like to clarify one point. So I've been dropping all these big names and I know I've been dropping these big names. It's a marketing ploy, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
But I just want you to know that being in my book or being on my podcast, it's not because you're rich or you're famous. It's because you're remarkable. So the big names I dropped are,
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
are people who are remarkable at an extreme if some billionaire who ran a hedge fund asked to be on my podcast the answer would be no because i don't give a that you have figured out financial arbitrage and you've made billions of dollars because you have not made the world a better place you've made your world a better place but you haven't made the world a better place
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And so I've been dropping all these big names, but I can also drop names of people most of you would never heard of. A high school teacher in Rogue River, Oregon. A guy who is now a respiratory therapist, but he grew up in the projects in Brooklyn and both his parents are crack addicts. I've had Halim Flowers, who's one of the hottest young artists in America today.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
You know, he's the next Jean-Michel Basquiat. He was sentenced at 16 to 44 years of prison for being an accomplice to a murder. Six years he got out early, and now he's one of the best artists. You know, most of you have not heard of him. You will hear of him, but he is remarkable. I have another woman who was smuggled across the U.S. border from San Diego as a baby.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
She lives in a house with 15 other relatives, and now she's working for Adobe as a middle manager. You know what? I think that's remarkable. On the other hand, you know, it's not like I have hedge fund billionaires, trust fund babies. None of those. They don't qualify.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, in a sense, we've been talking about this the whole time, right? Because the book is based on growth, grit, and grace. And that's what I learned from him. I would be hard-pressed to think of somebody who has more grace and graciousness than Jane Goodall. That's what I learned. And... This is a sample of 200 people, highly selected.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
It's not scientific in the sense that I took a random sample of people and I waited for all the factors, and then I gave them objective tests so that they pass. It's not like Mensa, where if you got an IQ, you're in, right? So this is subjectivity, self-selection. A lot of things. On the other hand, there is a lot to learn from these people.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And I just want that to get out in a form that people can easily gain access to. Now, my podcast is free. You can download all 200 episodes, but that is literally 200 hours of listening. You can read my book. My book is less than 200 pages long. And you could read it in probably two or three hours. And that's how it should be. This is not the Chicago Manual of Style that's 700 pages.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
This is not the war and peace of self-help, okay? This is more like how to be remarkable for dummies. I mean, I want this to be quick. Part of making a difference and part of being remarkable, you can only read and study so much.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Yes, thank you. But if I could just issue a couple corrections there. Yes. I am no longer on the board of trustees of Wikipedia. You roll off those things. And I am no longer a brand ambassador for Mercedes. They kind of did not continue that program. Although I still have one. And actually, I have one on order, too.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I already talked about the guy who had two crack addict parents. I talked about the guy who was in prison for 20-something years. Another woman, and just FYI, if you're a woman listening to this and you're thinking, oh, this is a typical Silicon Valley tech bro. And when you look at my podcast, you're going to say, oh, it's like 90% men and 10% women.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I hate to disappoint you, but if you look at my podcast, it's probably 60 or 70 percent women and 30 or 40 percent men. It's heavily. I should just name my podcast Remarkable Women, but that's a different discussion.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I mean, OK, we could really go down a deep, dark hole here. But I think that men have been screwing it up for now 2024 years. And I think we should give women a chance. I think like, you know, I want the Angela Merkel's and the Stacey Abrams. And what's her name from New Zealand? Jacinda Ahern or, you know, Melanie Perkins from Canva.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I want women to run the world because men have proven that they are incompetent and cannot do it. So now I just lost all the male readers listening to this, but maybe they'll buy the book to give to their daughters. Okay. Anyway, the woman's name is Andrea Lytle-Pete. And 10 years ago, she was diagnosed with ALS. Those of you not familiar with ALS, typically you die after two years.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So she's lived eight years longer than expected. And when she got diagnosed, she decided that she was going to complete a marathon in all 50 states with ALS. Now, she started running. She ended up in a recumbent bike, but she did do it. And I look at that and I say, you know, that is remarkable. It's remarkable she's still alive.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
It's remarkable that she went through all the effort and time and expense to go to 50 states and participate in all this and overcome barriers. Like, one of the best stories in the book is the 50th... Marathon that she wanted to run was the Boston Marathon. Okay. And the Boston Athletic Group or whatever its name rejected her application.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And they said, well, we have categories for people who have, you know, wheelchairs and we have cars. People who have this and we have people who have that and these kind of, you know, issues and disabilities. But we don't have a category for people on recumbent bikes. So you cannot run or bike the Boston Marathon. Like, what the hell? Yeah. Wrap your mind around that, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So now that's a good enough story about overcoming resistance, but it gets better. So what she did is she and her team, Drea, her name is Andrea. So team Drea, small crew of volunteer, they get to Boston. The day before the race. And she runs the race by herself. How can it get better? I mean, seriously, how can it get better than that? Sticking it to the man. I love that story.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I was an advisor to the president of the Motorola division of Google, but that was sold off. So what I am is I am the chief evangelist of Canva. I'm the host of the Remarkable People podcast. And I do live in Watsonville, and I love to surf. So that's the three most important things.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, the first path is to build the foundation. I first want you to understand that, as I said, this is not a self-help book. So this is not about instant success, how to make yourself remarkable in 10 easy steps, because being remarkable is not easy. If it was, there would be more remarkable people, quite frankly, right? So the way to be remarkable is not to decide to be remarkable.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
The way to be remarkable is decide to make the world a better place. So this could be as a teacher, as a coach, as a mentor, as a parent. You could also make the case you could make the world a better place by turning your own life around. There are people in the book and podcast you've never heard of because they impacted in terms of sheer numbers, very few people.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
But what they did was remarkable. And so you have to get it in your brain that this is not about putting lipstick on a pig to get a prettier pig. You cannot start with the pig. You have to start with people. How can I make the world a better place? How can I make one person's life better or a team or a classroom or my kids, whatever it is?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And I would make the case that if you do make a difference, people will have no choice but to consider you remarkable. So this is not chicken or egg. I'm remarkable. Therefore, people call me remarkable because I can make a difference. The order is make a difference. This book is how to make a difference. And guess what? Hallelujah. You make a difference. People will think you're remarkable.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
That's how you do it.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
This is a question that is so open to abuse. Well, I love the expression there. I mean, in a sense, you know, that Sandra Bullock movie where she was running for Miss America. And then in Miss America, there's usually this place where there's the impromptu answer a question part, right? It's like, so what are your goals? You know, how do you want to contribute or whatever?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And everybody, the whole parody of the movie was she's up there. She's saying, well, You know, I want to end climate change or I want to foster education or I want everybody to have health care or clean water or all that. And I understand that. But this is about like first do good shit and everything else follows.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
If you don't do good shit, then, you know, you may be just putting lipstick on a pig and you still end up with a pig. Yeah.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Oh, yeah. Listen, I think that the universe has a karmic scoreboard. And someplace, somewhere, God or whatever you want, AI, whatever it is, but she is keeping track. And there's no scientific proof of karma, okay? Some things you just need to believe to see. But I believe there's a karmic scoreboard. The Japanese have this concept called bachi.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And bachi means that, you know, when you do something bad, guess what? It's going to come back to haunt you. And I believe that. And I'm not talking about just, you know, creating genocides. I'm talking about, you know, when you throw your litter out the window. When you're driving on the street, you're going to get bocce. Something is going to happen.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Your car is going to get a flat tire or somebody is going to back up into you. Something is going to happen. So I'm a big believer in bocce. So I try to never, ever take any chances.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, I mean, it's you could live your life just worried about bocce and the golden rule. If you just did those two things, you'd probably be OK. Yeah.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Okay, what Heather's talking about is the people who got the manuscript, they also got some acorns. And believe it or not, I bet no author has ever sent you acorns before.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Okay, so not only are there acorns, but I promise you, I personally collected those acorns. There is a street in Los Gatos, California, where for some reason the oak trees there, they really put out a lot of acorns. So I spent an afternoon picking up acorns and they probably thought, who is this dementia Asian picking up acorns?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, I mean, I think that as I write about, I think that people go through, like, if they do it and they're lucky, they go through three phases. There's the growth phase where you're learning new skills and embracing new things. There's the grit phase where you're paying the price and you're working hard. And there's the grace phase. And I hope that I'm in the grace phase now.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Like I just confirmed many Asian stereotypes for people that they're getting those acorns. So now people are wondering, guy, what the hell are you talking about? Well, acorns grow up to be gigantic oaks. An oak is one of the most beautiful trees, not just aesthetically, but an oak creates an ecosystem of insects and birds and And they provide shade, and they last forever.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And so we bought a house, and it was surrounded by eucalyptus trees. The problem with eucalyptus trees is that they burn really well, and they use a lot of water. They don't have a good root structure, so they fall over. So eucalyptus trees burn, fall over, and use your water. These are not three good qualities. I hired somebody to cut a lot of these eucalyptus trees.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And then I went on a mission to return native species to this hill because eucalyptus was brought from Australia. I love Australia, if you're an Australian, because it's Canva Canva. I have a cochlear implant because I'm deaf. That's from Australia. I use an external monitor called Espresso. That's from Australia. When I podcast, I use Rode Mixer. That's from Australia.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So I love Australia, but you should not have sent the eucalyptus trees. So anyway, so now I got to figure out how do I get native oaks on this hill? And all the reading I do, it says, you know what? You can go and you can buy these saplings and you can plant them. But a much better way to grow oak trees is you start with the acorn.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And apparently, and we're going to find out, if you start with the acorn, it puts down a stronger root system. So after a few years, it will catch up to the sapling and pass it. I hope I'm alive to see this happen. But anyway... So I go and I gather these acorns. And then the first thing you learn is you got to throw all the acorns into the water because the ones that sink are good.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
The ones that float are dead. So you throw away all the ones that float And then you take all the sinkers and you put them in a tray and you cover it with a cloth or something and you keep it damp in your refrigerator for two or three months because you need to simulate the winter because that's what makes it germinate. OK, so for a long time, my wife was wondering, what the hell is this trail?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Stop in our refrigerator. So then after two or three months, you plant them. And listen, you have to plant like dozens and dozens. I planted probably about 50 or 60 to get five or 10 seedlings. And it's not clear that those seedlings will be saplings. And it's not good. Those saplings will be old trees. And as I was thinking about this whole process, I,
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
you know, I came to the conclusion, this is a great metaphor for life, right? You've got to gather a lot of seeds. You've got to sample. You've got to gather a lot of experiences. You put them under stress. Some sink. Some float. You throw the dead floaters away. You plant the ones that have potential. Some of them actually seed. Then you take care of those. You water them. You fertilize them.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
You make sure the deer don't eat them. And if you're patient and if you're lucky... in 10 or 15 years maybe i will sit under the shade of what used to be acorns but let's say i die so this is another interesting you know thing you have to come to grips with that in fact i realized that i am planting acorns that i will probably never sit under their shade
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So you're thinking for your grandchildren, probably. Not even your children, your grandchildren. And so when you have a perspective that you're thinking for your grandchildren, it kind of changes everything, right? It's not about me, me, me, me, me, me, me. You know, when am I getting my reward, my bigger house, my Mercedes? And it's not even like, what am I going to give to my kids, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And so I, being a podcaster, I don't know about you, but we get about 10 requests a day to be on our podcast. And so I'm rejecting hundreds of people every year. So I know that the fact that I'm on your podcast. I'm at least one or two of the most important people that sent you a request of the 10 that day. So that means you're doing me a favor and it's a privilege and an honor.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
It's what am I going to leave for my grandkids? And, you know, when you have that kind of reflection and thought, I have to say it really impacts how you think.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, I mean, this isn't, first of all, if you ask Madison, she will tell you that guy doesn't always exhibit patience. Okay.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I am certainly not. But you know what? Like many things in life, it's complicated, right? So patience is waiting 20 years for that old tree. But patience is the flip side of complacency. And so if you're overly patient or you're patient in everything, maybe you won't grow and maybe you won't have grit, right? So it's not as binary as you got to be patient. Sometimes you got to be impatient.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And as I look back in my life, some teachers, some bosses, some coaches were very impatient with me. And that led to good things, not bad things. So it's not that simple that I have this theory that the older I get, the less I think I know what
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And don't you have any easy questions?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
OK, so one thing that I've learned in my life is that everybody you meet can do something better than you. Right. Listen, you may talk to your gardener and you're thinking, well, I'm the landowner. He or she is just the gardener. For all you know, that gardener can raise oak trees better than you. Maybe that gardener can surf better than you. Maybe that gardener can cook better than you.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So, you know, you think you're all hot shit and you're the center of the freaking universe. But I'm telling you that that gardener can do something better than you. And that is true of everybody. So when you ask a question like that, it's very risky because it's kind of like saying that, you know, you can judge people as losers, right? But okay.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So let's say someone is not progressing in his or her career, not putting in the 60 hours, you know, whatever, just kind of a middle of the road person. And you're thinking, Oh, I'm so vastly superior to that person, but you don't know. Maybe he or she is single parent raising four kids and, taking care of her parents and grandparents. Maybe he or she is abused. I mean, who knows what, right?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
But you're just judging that he or she is not this overachiever at work. But you don't know the total picture, so you should not judge people. This is a very long answer to say that I hesitate to give you an answer to your question. Because I'm telling you, remarkable people, they grow. They have grit and they have grace. But you may not see those things because you're only seeing one slice.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
If you go to the United Airlines counter and the check-in person treats you like shit, I suggest to you that you step back and you say, you don't know what's going on in her life, right? Maybe her school just called her and said, your daughter or son is in trouble again, right? And all you care about is you want to get an upgrade to first class because, you know, your global services.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And do you know who I am? I demand that you upgrade me. Like, give me a break. My kid is like, you know, just got arrested. And that's my problem. What's your problem? Go sit in fucking middle of the economy. I don't care. I can't say if I was United Airlines, I would want that to come across. But you got to think of what else is going on in people's lives.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Yeah, I think that based on my interviews with these 200 remarkable people over the past four years, and when I say remarkable, I truly do mean remarkable. These are people like Jane Goodall, Stacey Abrams, Margaret Atwood. Angela Duckworth, Woz, Stephen Wolfram, the youngest MacArthur fellow, you know, over and over again.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
You know, of course, it will be in bookstores and Amazon and everywhere, right? I mean, getting it will not be a problem. Deciding to get it is what I'm trying to make you do right now. And listen, I... A tech guy like me sure as hell should have a great domain. So I have a domain, Think Remarkable.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And the way you remember the title, well, we've been talking about Remarkable all day, but back in 1997, Apple ran an ad campaign called Think Different. And it was about Einstein and Richard Branson and Gandhi and Picasso, all the people who thought differently and would be the kind of person that would use a Macintosh. And that ad campaign and the iMac save Apple.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Well, of course, there was Steve Jobs, too. And I think that, you know, yes, thinking different is good and kept us going. But now in today's fractured world, you got to think remarkable. You need to up your game from just different to remarkable. So I hope you'll read the book. You know, I hope it helps you make a difference. That's the key. That's the reward for me.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Thank you. Thank you very much. And listen, if you drop those acorns in water and they all flow, just let me or Madison know and I'll go get some more for you.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And so what I noticed is this common pattern of you don't get to be remarkable unless you have a growth mindset. People with fixed mindsets, they believe that they are what they are. They cannot embrace new subjects, new topics. The skills they have are the skills they'll all ever have. They can't make it better. And it won't get worse. And that's just not true of remarkable people.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Remarkable people are always learning and trying and working hard, which leads us to the second phase. Because, I mean, even if you're willing to learn a new sport or a new subject, It's not going to be easy. I took up surfing at 60 and I've had to dedicate a fair, one might say, obsessive portion of my life to become a surfer.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So you don't just wake up one day and say, I'm going to be a musician forever. And it magically happens. That's the grit phase. And finally, the grace phase is where you decide that it's not about you anymore. It's about making a mark and making the world a better place.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
and for me when i die i want people to say you know guy empowered me he empowered me with his book with his podcast with his speaking with his investing with his advising so just if members of your audience are used to reading self-help books this is not a self-help book
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
like i think a lot of self-help books you know the whole purpose is to get you to come to my conference right and you know we're gonna be at the miami ritz-carlton and for five thousand dollars in 48 hours i'm gonna teach you how to be remarkable and in the general session you know you the visionary guru you walk out and you get a standing ovation and you tell people oh
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Say to the person on your right, you're remarkable, and then look to your left and tell that person you're remarkable. And, like, stand up and raise your hands because we're all remarkable. That ain't happening. I'm not that kind of guy, okay? This book is not, you know, the guy's way. This is my analysis of 200 remarkable people. filtered through 40 years of frontline tech experience.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So it's not like I'm a 22-year-old millennial wannabe that says, oh, I met all these famous people. Let me tell you what I learned. Because at 22, I've already created a remarkable track record. Like, give me a break.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Oh, my God. I mean, were you ever on Clubhouse?
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I mean, holy shit, Heather. On Clubhouse, every conversation was, I'm 25 years old. I've already built up a really successful practice. If you click on the link in my profile, you'll get $200 off my $1,000 course on how to make money in social media. I mean, you know, there's a lot of reasons for the death of, or I don't know if it's dead yet, for the demise of Clubhouse.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
But I swear, 90% of the conversations were people talking about how great they were and how you should click on their link for their online conference.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Yeah. Well, you can contact any of the schools that I said I attended to see that I really attended them. That's number one, including UC Davis Law School, where I quit after two weeks.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Being remarkable is not easy. If it was, there would be more remarkable people, quite frankly, right? So the way to be remarkable is not to decide to be remarkable. The way to be remarkable is decide to make the world a better place. So this could be as a teacher, as a coach, as a mentor, as a parent.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
I went to law school for two weeks and couldn't take it. So I quit. You know, a lot of people cover that up on their resume by they say they attended as opposed to graduated. So I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii, a lower income part of Honolulu, though. I you know, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to paint this picture of how I overcame crushing poverty and
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And, you know, lifted myself up by my bootstraps. I came from a lower income family, but my parents made a lot of sacrifices so that I could get a great education. So don't feel sorry for me. I've had a charmed life. And a sixth grade teacher convinced my parents to take me out of the public school system in Hawaii, put me into the private school system because she said I had too much potential.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Thank you, God, for that teacher. Thank you, God, that my parents listened to her. That enabled me to get into a private school in Hawaii called Iolani. At Iolani, I cannot tell you why, but for some reason, I applied to Stanford. I also cannot tell you why, how the hell I got into Stanford, but I got in. And so I went to Stanford, and from Hawaii to Stanford, it was a religious experience.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
Now, Hawaii is a wonderful place and, you know, all that. Don't get me wrong, but in Hawaii... Your sort of horizons are limited by, well, if I'm really successful, I'll run the Sears Roebuck or I'll run the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel or something. Now, I'm not saying that that's not remarkable accomplishments. It takes something to get to that level.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
But there's none of the sort of growth of Hewlett Packard or Apple or Facebook or Google in Hawaii. So I get off this airplane in SF full, you get in a van, you go to Stanford. This is like the holy land. I mean, this is like, thank you, God, the scales are removed from my eyes. And at Stanford, I met someone and we became very good friends.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And years later, he hired me into Apple, into the Macintosh division. And just so you know, I majored in psych because that was the easiest major I could find, right? If you looked at my background on paper, thank God that, you know, it was an AI analyzing my resume back then. It would say psych major, two-week dropout from UC Davis.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
And at the time, I was more or less in the jewelry business, the jewelry manufacturing business, so schlepping diamond gold. You know, you wouldn't say, oh, perfectly qualified. You know, let's bet Macintosh Software on this psychology major from the jewelry business. So I'm living proof that nepotism can have positive results.
Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
Confidence Classic: You Can Be REMARKABLE: The Guide To Growth, Grit, & Grace with Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist of Canva & Remarkable People Podcast Creator
So I worked at Apple as the software evangelist, convincing people to create Mac products. I left, I started some tech startups. I returned to Apple as Apple's chief evangelist. Then I left again and I started, you know, other companies, writer, speaker, and then Canva reached out to me. Do you use Canva? Yeah. So 10 years ago, Canva sends me a tweet saying, we noticed you use Canva.