Principles of Authentic Business

A Review of George Kao's Book

Feb 17, 2024

I have two seemingly separate selves when it comes to my creative life: there’s the startup bro who is extremely goal-oriented and ambitious and wants to optimize and monetize my creative pursuits. Then there’s the sensitive artist who only wants to create beautiful things and shudders at any type of self-promotion.

I spend more time I’d like to admit embroiled in a constant war between these two selves. I feel bad that I’m not able to make a living from my creative pursuits, AND I also feel bad that I want to make a living from my creative pursuits in the first place. I feel terrified at self-promoting and failing, and my inner startup bro scoffs at the artist who simply cannot perform.

I recently came across George Kao’s book Principles of Authentic Business last month. The purpose of the book is to help solopreneurs create heart-based sustainable businesses. I’ve found it to be really helpful in unknotting the tangles that my inner startup-bro and sensitive selves have entangled themselves in.

George’s concepts are deceptively simple. They make me go “well duh!” after I’ve read them, but I never would’ve thought of them beforehand. For instance, his view on discipline is a contender to be an all-time favorite: “I’m strict about showing up, lenient about results… and gentle to bring myself back to focus, again and again.”

George’s post on discipline resolved a long-held tension between my startup bro and my artistic self. Over the years, I’ve oscillated between being too strict to the point of eventual burnout — we must wake up at six AM like the actual finance bros — and too lenient with myself — you know what? It’s okay to be a couch potato for the next two weeks, I need to be kind to myself. Both discipline and leniency are necessary parts of the joyful productivity equation, just not in the ways I was expecting.

Overall, Principles of Authentic Business gives concrete advice that is both actionable and spiritually clean. I personally find most books to be too “woo” or too grind-oriented. George Kao’s book synthesizes strategy and spirituality well. As an example, here’s what George writes about authentic influencing:

Most influencers compete for attention by trying to be more entertaining, more shocking, more clever with their content.
Instead, we can instead aim to be our authentic caring selves — rather than trying to be polished.
We can win by caring more for our audience than other influencers are willing to care.
We do this by deeply understanding our audience, which then allows us to create content and offerings that they will also care about.
I dream of a world where influencers and thought leaders will prioritize their own inner growth over their external metrics.
Don’t try to “grab attention” and “get” millions of followers. Focus on caring enough for your true fans, by seeking deeper conversation with them, and your business will naturally thrive.

What a crystal-clear distillation of an authentic way to grow: the success of your business are lag measures of the value you create. Rather than orienting solely around numbers (I am very guilty of this and felt extremely called out when I first read this passage), focus on actually providing value to the people you seek to serve, and external success is likely to follow.

These principles have worked for George to create a thriving business, but will they work for me or you if we put our full selves into realizing these principles? That’s the core question I ask myself when it comes to the teachings made by any creator, even the creators whose worldviews overlap with mine.

I can’t answer definitely this question, in part because the method George recommends for growing businesses takes years to work on. In the book, he suggests a 10 year framework, with part-time income by the end of year 2, full time income by the end of year 4, and semi-passive full-time income by the end of year 10. Catch me in a few years, and I can give you a much better answer.

Another reason why I hesitate to say that the method works completely is that coaching, healing, influencing, startups, and small businesses are largely dominated by the power law. I’m doubtful that the economics work out such that every person working on growing their coaching practice will get a thriving income.

This being said, I can wholeheartedly recommend Principles of Authentic Business because the only business game worth playing is the authentic business game, which George has mastered. Back in January, he held a few book discussion meetings leading up to the launch of Principles of Authentic Business. During the discussion, he wanted to get to know the participants, so I got to ask a few questions about Substack growth. He quickly gave a bunch of suggestions and perspectives that I’ve been implementing (forming a group with other writers, hopping on calls with readers to get to know how I can help).

I was absolutely blown away by George’s generosity and genuine desire to help me. I feel inspired to be more generous and patient as I progress on the creator path. As George writes in the book, “When I am well-rested, feeling loved, and connected to my higher self, I realize that what I really want isn’t financial freedom… What I yearn for is the feeling of being truly useful to others, experiencing my strengths in service of uplifting humanity, and feeling that the money I earn is honest and noble.”

Principles of Authentic Business is a truly excellent book that’s perfect for fans of

rob hardy 🦌

and

Paul Millerd

. It’s only $3, which is a steal. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re curious about creating a sustainable authentic livelihood that doesn’t make your soul want to puke!

Thank you to George Kao for offering a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I was just so impatient and couldn’t wait for the release date.