Enchantment = Cialdini

I have been asked to write a review of Guy Kawasaki’s new book “Enchantment“* and to tell the truth that encouraged me to finish it. As Guy had been kind enough to send me a review copy but life sort of got in the way in a not so enchanting way I was feeling like a cheat, not at all enchanting of course.

So Sarah asked me to write a review for Blokes and I thought that if someone can be bothered to send me a review copy and another person asks me to review it then really I should have the good grace to finish it inside of a month shouldn’t I?

So I picked it up and started on chapter six which is where I remembered it had been marooned a few weeks ago at the side of my bed when life turned up.

I am so glad I did.

Now you may know the background to Guy Kawasaki or you may not. Just in case let’s do a potted history; he worked for Apple twice as chief cheerleader and runs a VC firm for early stage start ups in California as well as running Alltop, an excellent top ten lists site.

What that doesn’t say is that he is also a very “enchanting” person who comes across in his actions on social media as genuine, one of the main points he makes in the book when trying to enchant people.

The question that sort of bugs me is “Enchantment, is it ethical?”

Guy answers this question at the end after telling us a myriad of ways of enchanting others whether on a business or personal level. If you have never read any Robert Cialdini then this may well be totally new to you and you will be well served to read the book. If you have read Cialdini before then you will recognise 80% of what is being said in the book. However Guy brings it to life with real world up to date examples, from the well known such as Apple, Zappos and more to less well known ones which I will obviously leave you to discover in the book.

So what about my question, is enchantment ethical? The answer of course is it can be but you must use it for good because as we can see by the ponzi schemes run by Bernie Madoff and his ilk, actually maybe there isn’t anyone who had the chutzpah of Madoff so there is no ilk there, using Enchantment in the wrong way is also very very possible.

So you probably have a question that needs to be answered too along the lines of, will this be any good to me in business, or even in life?

Well really I guess the answer is again possibly. If you take on board what Guy says then you should be able to incorporate at least some aspects into your business. However if you are not a likeable sort you may find it difficult and may be better choosing a “Face” for your company that finds human interaction a little less forced

Would I recommend you read this book? Absolutely, but when you buy it on Amazon * make sure that you take them up on their “would you like fries with that” offer of “Influence” by Cialdini too because as Guy mentions in his credits at the back a huge chunk of this book comes from that one.

Graham

* please note that the above links earn a small amount should you buy – this goes towards an education fund for the Birds’ favourite charity.