![](https://www.guykawasaki.com/about/pictures/GuyKawasaki6.jpg)
2) Tell us your career journey post-graduation through now in less than 200 words. Then tell us: If there was one thing you could do differently in that journey, what would it be?
III
After graduating with a psychology (not pre-med major) from Stanford I "attended" the UC Davis School of Law for only two weeks because I just couldn't stand it. I may be one of its most famous almost-alumni! Maybe if I had stuck to pre-med, House would be based on me. Or Denny Craine if I had been a lawyer.
After that, I went to UCLA to get an MBA. I got into UCLA and Northwestern, but my mama didn't raise no fool and below zero winters weren't in the cards for me. While at UCLA I worked part-time counting diamonds--literally counting diamonds. While my buddies went into investment banking and consulting, I stayed with this jewelry manufacturing firm and got the greatest lesson in selling that a person could. Much of my success is because I learned how to sell in the jewelry business--not to mention my command of Yiddish.
From the jewelry business I went to Apple after a short stint in a software company. It was short because the company was acquired, and it moved to Atlanta. Atlanta held as much appeal to me as Evanston, Illinois, so I went to Apple because of nepotism (that is, my college roommate hired me), started a few software companies, went back to Apple, started Garage Technology Ventures, and also created an "online magazine rack" called Alltop.
Oh yeah, in 1994 I turned down the opportunity to interview for the CEO position of Yahoo. That was a $2 billion mistake. Are you sure you want to interview me?
3) Name 1-2 things you've learned to date about career that you think young professionals (ages 18-40) would want to know.
1) Your first few jobs after college don't really matter so chill out. You're aren't going to stay at these jobs very long unless you are total suckup who wants to be the youngest--albeit miserable--partner in some New York firm. I didn't exactly plan to go from counting diamonds to funding tech startups if you know what I mean.
2) Ultimately, if you're living right, kids will bring you the greatest joy in life. Certainly, your greatest joy will not come from money, houses, cars, boats, whatever. In fact, I could make the case that all of these are barriers to true joy. At the end of the day, you really should do what you love to do not what makes the most money.
Guy Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an ³online magazine rack² of popular topics on the web. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.