The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
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Steve Jobs: Leadership lessons
His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company.
Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination to technology and business.
In the months since my biography of Jobs came out, countless commentators have tried to draw management lessons from it. Some of those readers have been insightful, but I think that many of them (especially those with no experience in entrepreneurship) fixate too much on the rough edges of his personality.
Personality. The essence of Jobs, I think, is that his personality was integral to his way of doing business. He acted as if the normal rules didn’t apply to him, and the passion, intensity, and extreme emotionalism he brought to everyday life were things he also poured into the products he made. His petulance and impatience were part and parcel of his perfectionism.
One of the last times I saw him, after I had finished writing most of the book, I asked him again about his tendency to be rough on people. “Look at the results,” he replied. “These are all smart people I work with, and any of them could get a top job at another place if they were truly feeling brutalized. But they don’t.” Then he paused for a few moments and said, almost wistfully, “And we got some amazing things done.”
Indeed, he and Apple had had a string of hits over the past dozen years that was greater than that of any other innovative company in modern times: iMac, iPod, iPod nano, iTunes Store, Apple Stores, MacBook, iPhone, iPad, App Store, OS X Lion—not to mention every Pixar film. And as he battled his final illness, Jobs was surrounded by an intensely loyal cadre of colleagues who had been inspired by him for years and a very loving wife, sister, and four children.
Steve's accomplishment: Apple as an enduring company. So I think the real lessons from Steve Jobs have to be drawn from looking at what he actually accomplished. I once asked him what he thought was his most important creation, thinking he would answer the iPad or the Macintosh. Instead he said it was Apple the company. Making an enduring company, he said, was both far harder and more important than making a great product. How did he do it? Business schools will be studying that question a century from now. Here are what I consider the keys to his success.
Focus
When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it was producing a random array of computers and peripherals, including a dozen different versions of the Macintosh. After a few weeks of product review sessions, he’d finally had enough. “Stop!” he shouted. “This is crazy.” He grabbed a Magic Marker, padded in his bare feet to a whiteboard, and drew a two-by-two grid. “Here’s what we need,” he declared. Atop the two columns, he wrote “Consumer” and “Pro.” He labeled the two rows “Desktop” and “Portable.” Their job, he told his team members, was to focus on four great products, one for each quadrant. All other products should be canceled. There was a stunned silence. But by getting Apple to focus on making just four computers, he saved the company. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,” he told me. “That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”
Top 100 people, top ten things and chose only three. After he righted the company, Jobs began taking his “top 100” people on a retreat each year. On the last day, he would stand in front of a whiteboard (he loved whiteboards, because they gave him complete control of a situation and they engendered focus) and ask, “What are the 10 things we should be doing next?” People would fight to get their suggestions on the list. Jobs would write them down—and then cross off the ones he decreed dumb. After much jockeying, the group would come up with a list of 10. Then Jobs would slash the bottom seven and announce, “We can only do three.”
Zen training of Focus. Focus was ingrained in Jobs’s personality and had been honed by his Zen training. He relentlessly filtered out what he considered distractions. Colleagues and family members would at times be exasperated as they tried to get him to deal with issues—a legal problem, a medical diagnosis—they considered important. But he would give a cold stare and refuse to shift his laserlike focus until he was ready.
Larry Page and Google Advise- Focus on five products. Near the end of his life, Jobs was visited at home by Larry Page, who was about to resume control of Google, the company he had cofounded. Even though their companies were feuding, Jobs was willing to give some advice. “The main thing I stressed was focus,” he recalled. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up, he told Page. “It’s now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.” Page followed the advice. In January 2012 he told employees to focus on just a few priorities, such as Android and Google+, and to make them “beautiful,” the way Jobs would have done.
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Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, is the author of Steve Jobs and of biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein.
Tom O'Connell Yesterday 02:25 PM
I knew SJ had been adopted right after birth; also that as a Baby Boomer raised in the Bay Area he had almost certainly been a pot smoker and tried LSD as an adolescent, both of which were confirmed in Walter Isaacson's amazingly complete and sympathetic biography.
What surprised me was that although Isaacson covered the details of SJ's adoption, he missed its significance as the dominant motivating force in his adult behavior; something I'd learned only because I've been engaged in an organized study of cannabis applicants in California for the past 10 years.
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Tom O'Connell Yesterday 02:06 PM
I'm just finishing Walter Isaacson's biography, which I bought as soon as I discovered it in a local book store because I knew Steve had been adopted shortly after birth and my study of cannabis applicants in California had revealed that adoptees were among the most troubled members of a generally troubled population; thus I was also quite sure that as a Baby Boomer exposed to the counter culture, he would have almost certainly have been a pot smoker and have experimented with LSD, both of which Isaacson confirmed. What I also knew, and which Isaacson, for all his excellent insights missed, was that Jobs' status as an adoptee would have been the most powerful motivating force in his behavior.
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Elisabeth 06/17/2012 02:33 PM
Let's not rush to find a quick hero in the absence of leadership. Yes, Steve Jobs founded a legacy that set the bar for many companies throughout the world. However, his business model and approach, characteristic of 20th century American companies, is now outdated. Instead of reminiscing about days of yore glorifying what was, American business leaders should move forward drawing upon lessons from the Chinese, the Brazilian, and Indian business models which have garnered recent success.
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Kuldeep vishwani 06/13/2012 03:04 PM
i m loving it ...this article make me feel what makes the grt people different from others ..it not always innovation but something more like passion to work ,achieve grt in lyf ,etc....
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Rudyparker7 06/02/2012 02:58 PM
I would, disagree with 'bend reality' - I think this cause Jobs as many problems as it solved. For example it was this attitude which kept him using his own remedies for cancer for 9 months whilst the cancer aggresively ate away at him. According to medical experts he had a good chance of survival if he'd followed their advice rather than 'bent reality' / lived in denial. This habit also made him impossible to work for (check out his biography for good examples of this) .
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Mayukh 05/25/2012 10:10 PM
Great inspirational ideas, technology should complement human ingenuity not substitute human intellectual capacity
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Sre 05/25/2012 05:26 AM
Great post and immensely benefitted
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Vaibhav Mathankar 05/23/2012 02:06 AM
Great leadership quality of Steve Jobs
The Risk Lesson. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” The very nature of innovation requires a stark departure from the status quo and deviation from the norm. The best leaders have the vision to understand that fact and the tenacity to lead an organization to that future state despite organizational inertia and resistance.
Vaibhav
http://stratbeans.com/index.ph...
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Guest 05/20/2012 09:50 PM
While I greatly admire what Steve brought to the world, there are equally as high profile business leaders who invest in their companies' success as well as invest in their people and they ways in which they drive that success. Why not be respected and revered by your associates? I've seen it done. Does anyone seriously think Jobs' success would have been any less had he not been a screaming a-hole who terrorized his employees? I'm not exaggerating here, I had a friend who worked for him in his heyday and all the stories are true.
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George ojwang 05/16/2012 10:37 AM
The essence of social learning is to better equip this universe with life sustaining ingredients. It is about improvement on current provisions.Job's sharp focus at whatever cost exemplifies his visionary attachment to those ideals. Ojwang George, Kenya
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Clho0106 05/15/2012 11:52 AM
Thanks. Some great takeaways .
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James ji 05/11/2012 08:58 AM
Best post ever.
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James ji 05/11/2012 08:57 AM
best post ever. thanks
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Rajeev 05/09/2012 03:30 AM
Steve Jobs had the ability to dream and the audacity to make it happen.
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Imad Khaja 05/07/2012 12:29 PM
If he had gone for an MBA he would have become a successfull manager and probably CEO of a large company... but I wonder if he could still remain as creative and inspirational as he did with out an MBA.
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fxxx x 05/08/2012 11:27 AM in reply to Imad Khaja
an MBA only guarantees a good sheep, in a an established flock.
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Julio Taylor 05/07/2012 03:43 PM in reply to Imad Khaja
Imad, getting an MBA doesn't guarantee or make him a quality leader or Manager. And as you rightly said, maybe if he had gotten one i.e MBA, he probably would have turned out being unknown. Food for thought.
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Imad Khaja 05/09/2012 11:11 AM in reply to Julio Taylor
For some reason I developed this impression that many MBA curriculums in US and even globally are designed to produce managers. The highly admired 'collaborated environment' of 'diverse groups' in my humble opinion takes away the individuality of the student and shapes their thinking ...........................
individuality in my opinion is essense of creativity and entreprenuership......... not tested on GMAT unfortunately.
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Timadoons 05/08/2012 05:28 AM in reply to Julio Taylor
True an MBA is not going to make you or your company a success. Yes its comprehensive but not essential. If you wired as an entrepreneur you wired like that. Steve used his innovation blended with creativity to head one of the worlds most valuable business. I stand to be corrected ..
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Sudhir Kumar 05/07/2012 01:56 AM
Interesting article and some of the traits have commonality with Leonardo da Vinci as it is often debated whether he was a scientist who studied art or an artist who studied science. Perhaps, both.
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Mislem Sabag 04/30/2012 08:03 PM
I think these principles are easy to understand but quite hard to put on practice.
Maybe there were some things that Jobs has as issues, but he was a great man, he made a difference in this world and about being a genius... I might say that the guy knew what he wanted and had the guts to always follow his deeper toughts. I like that. Respect to Mr. Jobs
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Shahrazi Abu Talib 04/30/2012 11:38 AM
See it big Keep It Simple...Focus and Simplify
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Mel 04/29/2012 10:10 PM
Love the passion, mindset and vision.
Will use in my journey....to success
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Greg Basham, CEO, eeVoices.com 04/24/2012 03:50 AM
I must admit that my first take on Steve Jobs and his celebrated legacy was to focus on "the rough edges of his personality" along with the rumoured stories of him firing people in an elevator. However, what Walter Isaacson has done brilliantly is to paint a more complete and clearer picture of Steve Jobs along with delineating a set of Jobs' management practices that other leaders too can embrace but ideally in less confrontational ways.
If Jobs was able to inspire and gain the loyalty of top performers who not only contributed more but who stayed at Apple despite opportunities for exits to other top jobs, these "A" players must not have feared being fired as that typically doesn't lead to good performance or loyalty.
What I do believe fully in is Jobs' propensity to be candid and forthright about what he liked and didn't like. Quite frankly being nice to people and a lack of directness is actually unhelpful, dishonest and demonstrates a lack of integrity. A valuable lesson I have learned is to make sure you have a performance oriented and candid culture where people don't have to go home at night worrying what their boss thinks of their work. That is far more cruel than even Jobs's bluntness.
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Mperry6970 04/24/2012 01:49 AM
A great achiever of course but to what end? He contributed greatly to short-term entertainment and longer term consumerism. It is sad that we don't see John Enders, and many like him, celebrated in this way. BTW - John Enders developed vaccines to small pox and measles to save over 200 million people (to date). This fellow American died in 1985 after a life dedicated to such achievements AND mentoring peers and successors in a professional, profound manner. I guess the difference is all in the marketing...
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Santosh 04/24/2012 11:09 PM in reply to Mperry6970
It was an amusing irony that the Man behind those ‘cool’ products was a hot tempered task master. Although no one can contest his product vision and execution capabilities, Apple still remains as a company that makes some cool stuff. Steve, could have used his geniuses for greater purposes. To me a Google search engine did more for the humanity than all the Apple products put together. Again, this is not to belittle his achievements. He did build a successful company that builds some products that are nicer to look at, hold and use.
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Firefoxtoday 04/30/2012 01:02 PM in reply to Santosh
"Steve could have used his geniuses for a greater purpose"
hmmmmmm, he didn't change like seven industries. Should of, could of, Jobs was a legend.
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KO'M 04/24/2012 02:41 AM in reply to Mperry6970
Surely the point of the article is not to eulogize Steve Jobs, but to discuss his management and leadership style, and what are the lessons (as the title of the article states!) that can be applied in any field what-so-ever.
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ML Hayes 04/22/2012 09:10 AM
I have read quite a few accounts of the Steve Jobs story and how he imprinted the world with the Apple logo. Nothing can be taken away from Mr. Jobs' legacy of tenacity, but a lesson. Steve represents an exception, not the rule about business personality successes. He was able to do something only a few will be able to duplicate because of those insightful autobiographies and the roughness of this style of leadership.
As the author stated, Steve was an American working-class stiff from California who had to overplay his ego to counter the academic and business acumen of rivals and competitors. People typically deal with what they have been socialized to consider superior by applying true grit determination to get a piece of the pie. Many fail to realize that for most, that is actually the point of the college \ university experience.
This isn't uncommon, it is the rule. Self-perceptions dictate action under stress. That is why we make police officers attend academies, to change them from persons who perceive justice, to officers who recognize injustice. There is a big difference in the perspective of a raw recruit and a that of a seasoned veteran of many investigations. Likewise, the 'ideal' middle-class American dream, at the time of Jobs' youth was a life-time corporate position with a set routine and catch-all benefits.
Perhaps those days are gone never to return. There-in, the culture for reproducing a Steve Jobs may be lost to us. In any case, the stuff that made...
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NewBusinessHawk 04/19/2012 11:25 AM
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! And I will only add that much can be learned from taking a contrary view of Steve Jobs!
http://sandersconsulting.com/n...
So shouldn’t we all strive to be like Steve? The problem is there are only a handful of people who can visualize a future, play with it in their mind, and then go create it. A leader that smart can break all of the leadership rules. And sadly, most of us just aren’t that smart.
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PBC Cris 05/10/2012 02:07 AM in reply to NewBusinessHawk
I totally agree. Jobs was a man, at the end, and no men is perfect. The only leader who was instead and that I love to refer and inspire to is Jesus Christ.
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farisya shukor 04/19/2012 06:01 AM
Love this inspiring article.Thank you for sharing :)
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Shashank Goel 04/19/2012 02:13 AM
Great person who created superb products. How Apple survives post Jobs would be true homage to him and his vision!!
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Altrade4 04/14/2012 11:20 AM
NaIture reaches us functional simplicy--seems he applied those principles dilligently,---
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Tanveer Alam 04/14/2012 04:43 AM
I may not agree with the way he treated people but I do salute him for his ability to build a company with products that others only imagined of. The focus, simplicity and passion that he brought into apple is the need of the hour for many corporations who seem to have the best leads but aren't able to either focus on get to translate strategy into reality. Too much of the world is also busy matching up or creating things st to size up to the competition against visualizing an new world.
It would been great if Steve jobs was also a great leader of people.
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shifafire 04/14/2012 05:41 PM in reply to Tanveer Alam
You don't build a great company without being a great leader of people. Google his approval ratings inside Apple. What you mean is he didn't suffer fools gladly and he said what he meant and he meant what he said. I for one find it a breath of fresh air in this overly-PC era where you spend five times the time you need just trying to figure out what someone is trying to say.
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Sullim02 04/14/2012 01:55 AM
As I read this on my iPad, I know I would have likely missed out on experiencing this inspiration as early as I did if I had waited for the printed article. Steve's vision of personalizing entertainment, customizing information and simplifying our organized experiences will live for centuries to come, everyday. This excellent article helps us to see the underlying philosophies so clearly, and inspires us to make further change come to life more simply. Thank you!
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Guest 04/13/2012 02:08 PM
Steve Jobs taught us How to Learn From Failure: http://www.nationaljurist.com/...
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Sabrina Gutierrez 04/13/2012 05:03 AM
Great Article!! Truly inspiring!!
If every day of our life’s we are able to combine:
1) Simplicity
2) Have a discipline in order to be focus.
3) Be passionate
4) Be persistent
5)Challenge ourselves to take the biggest challenge we could find and have the
feeling we did absolutely the best with it.
It will push ourselves to discover our own creativity, connect the dots and for
sure we will able to make a difference in this world!
Thanks Steve Jobs!
Sabrina Gutierrez
From Colombia currently based in Belgium
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hkoppula 04/12/2012 11:16 PM
Profound simplicity. So hard to achieve - but he did it. Profoundly inspiring.....
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Kamal Hossain 04/10/2012 10:30 AM
Reading this month’s HBR, I found some of the articles
inspiring.
In Mr. Martin’s article, he states how businesses can learn
from the Malthus’s theory of restraint and responsibility and from Solow’s
optimistic view of innovation to solve the environmental crisis.
Malthus and Solow both give us a direction.
What about guidance from today’s leaders. Do we have one?
Apple’s Steve Jobs has been a leader for many business
owners and executives. His 14 keys to success outlined by Issacson gave me food
for thought. Can we apply his secret formula of success for today’s businesses,
given that we have the environmental crisis in hand?
We look into his formula from this point of view. We apply
the 14 keys for sustainable businesses.
1 Focus – it’s high time that businesses focus on their
impact on our planet and start making sustainable products/brands.
2 Simplify – The sustainable products/brands need to be
simple, as more sophistication could imply more power usage to create such
sophistication, hence chances of more carbon emission. While we need to keep
innovating, we need to keep our environment issue in mind and focus on keeping
sustainable products/brands simple.
3 Take Responsibility end to end – businesses need to take
full responsibility/accountability of their products/services impacting our
planet. When making such products, businesses need to understand the whole
process from the value chain till the consumers and seek measures to minimize and
eradicate negative impacts on our environment.
4 When behind, Leapfrog –...
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Uri 04/09/2012 05:51 AM
I was struggling a bit after reading the book about what made him and apple great. reading again the book and the article I got It wasn't his nature and how he treated people it was his desire for simplicity.
The reason he was as ass had everything to do with this one concept - life is not that complicated and he would accept it if someone told him otherwise. Everything he did, he put it in a simple way that everyone could understand- he never once told someone (at least not in the book :-)) you don't understand and left. he never did this because he believed that everything could be understood. The virtue and genius is not understanding but explaining. In his devices everything is understood (took a 4 year old sitting next to me on plain to understand how to use an iPad in less then a minute)
At the end, my take away is that he was a genius because he made a complicated life simple.
Uri
http://theartofclarity.blogspo...
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Raj 04/08/2012 07:37 PM
Greatly inspiring insight into Jobs life...
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Iamwangyong 04/08/2012 07:25 AM
So vivid and inspiring.
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Tom Corcoran 04/07/2012 09:12 PM
Extremely good as to the "intuitive" nature of, and success of America through it's entrepreneurs and mavericks!
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Teshirogi 04/07/2012 08:24 PM
The real readership lesson of Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
The ultimate simplicity
Japanse has a word called "様式美”."Yoshikibi"
I could not find or differ this to English so I use the term above... The Ultimate simplicity..I would like to hear if anyone got better idea to express this word.
anyway,
This word could explains everything he had been done.
Simplicity
This is the most sophisticated way to do anything, to produce product, to give service or anything you do. Hence for business.
because you just cannot do simply do something with no fringe. No.
You need to know every single aspect and details behind and understand it deeply to make something SIMPLE. and this is what Jobs wanted to define.
Two lines I picked up for express what and how Jobs drove himself.
one is
" customer don't know what they want until we ve shown them"
"While some see them as the crazy ones, we see Genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the one who do"
now.
The leader is the one who create dream/Goal that it would looks like possibly happens. The leadership is occur when people see this in Real and wanted to participate to make it Real.
Mr.Jobs was the one who create the most entertained products and drove the moment of world. However, He simply wanted to do what he really thought it could change the world and The...
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Jovepan 04/07/2012 05:04 PM
A person can be measured by many aspects, so is Steve Jobs. As a learner, I would try to pick what I want to learn the lessons from a person - either his success or failure. Given a limited life span, I think I can enjoy this learning process. That is why, I guess, we keep reading stories of people. Yet, mostly we do not become one of them. Steve, surely, has great impacts to many technologies of consumer products. Knowing how he made that happen is rewarding.
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Richcar53 04/06/2012 08:08 PM
Nice to get in the head of one of the worlds best inventors and culture changer ever!
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Ratkellar 04/06/2012 04:47 PM
Jobs was a genius. But to what end? We are now better entertained through the hub of entertainment he envisioned? That hub seems to have been his goal, even if it was to be done through the application of elegant design and extracting the best from smart people. Perhaps he embraced the Buddha's first truth too closely: "To exist is to suffer [dukkha]." There were many worthwhile lessons to be learned from this article, but I think I'll go read "How Will You Measure Your Life" now. I am very certain that neither business success, artistic awareness, nor technological accomplishments will be how I measure mine.
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Mauricio Gomez 04/06/2012 01:11 PM
Facts speak by themselves. Very few entrepreneurs had a professional life like he did. Those can be counted with fingers in a hand. However, it could be great if HBR gather all these profiles and show us all the commonalities (and differences) among them.
Mauricio Gomez
Bogota, Colombia
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jcel 04/06/2012 12:26 PM
I found the article inspiring and thought provoking. I wonder if the people that worked with Steve Jobs are sad or if deep down they are happy he is gone. While I understand that true greatness comes with sacrifice and testing our will, one has to ask the question of whether or not it was worth it. If he had to do it over again , what would he change?
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Rushaal 04/05/2012 04:05 AM
Fantastic Post. Thanks.
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Efishman 04/04/2012 09:32 PM
excellent summary of one of the legends of this or any time.
there are lessons here for all of us
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Rahul 04/04/2012 12:25 AM
Good post.
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PM Hut 04/03/2012 10:43 AM
It's really weird that all media is now publishing articles on Steve Jobs and his controversial management style after he died. Most of us knew nothing about his management style when he was alive.
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Joe Payton 04/03/2012 01:04 AM
In the tradition of The Razor's Edge, On the Road, and The Electric Cool-aid Acid Test, Jobs soaked up San Francisco's beatnik-come hippie culture and his Quality of Product upbringing to interpret the Love/Truth continuum to exploit TRUTH as an expression of LOVE.
Seems a mean hippie who makes great products that serve the consumer is forgiven/respected/loved over a loving hippie who builds nothing or little. History provides another example of civilization builders who's means are forgiven at the alter of great ends. The rest of us have to be nice as we can to each other, cause we really do suck more than we think we do and need to cooperate to make it work at all.
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Gilberte Houbart 04/01/2012 09:45 AM
Great article, much needed to complement the book. In fact in reading the book I felt frustrated there was not enough about Steve's design principles and thought process (although there was indeed but intertwined with many facts of life as you'd expect in a bio). Walter Isaacson had said I believe that he wanted his angle on the bio to be the creative process. I loved the book but felt there should have been almost another book about Steve and design. This article brings a "concentrate" of the essential parts of his thinking process along with examples.
One thing that should certainly be emphasized too is that he was a role model for courage and discipline. Courage to get through failure (multiple), early rejection from a company that was his whole life, and discipline to learn from it, stay focused and work hard. Not to mention the courage to face death and illness.
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Lu 04/01/2012 01:09 AM
Dear HBR.org
A few things to share after reading this article.
1. Steve Jobs' way is NOT suitable for everyone. Just like Sculley is not Steve nor Sally.
2. Steve's assertion that the best thing he has created is an enduring company. I think only time will tell if Appy can truly survive without his 'genius'. If so, it will be a sad ending as he has not achived his produest achievement.
Q. did the many SMART people that worked with him get their says in those stormy 'brain-sparring' sessions with h?
Q. when somone OTHER than Jobs pushed the 'pause' button, what was his responses and reactions?
3. 'Don't be slave to market research' as Jobs see it is partly true otherwise it is flawed. Why? To grow top lines you either: a. for existing prducts/services/solution: increase prices/usage from existing or find new customers; b. create New products/services/solution for existing or new customers.
Steve can be arrogant and use himself as the 'one-man market research' mechanism as Apple is currently, as the fans raved, 'insanely' successful.
I have seen great century old companies before extinct as they insisted on 'building a better mousetrap'.
4. Push for Perfection
It is sad that his Zen training and his focus on and desire for Perfection DID NOT push him to consider IMPROVING the way he interact with people, Good and Smart people.
Honesty and courage to be honest are great vitures and would have gone far couple with humility.
I did notice a Great Leadership Behavior here when he told the Mac design team: you could kill me with the guns as you have killed yourself doing this over the last 9 months and we have to start from zero!
5. Bend Reality (Reality Distortion Field)
All Great achieiving leader DO NOT accept the impossible. At the same time I noticed the Corning Glass CEO said: we put our BEST scientists and engineers on it and did it within 6 monhts as challenged by Steve Jobs.
These are the success stories. It would be good to learn of some 'failures' and would lessons can be drawn from them. This will be, shall I say, MORE real?
I really like the story of: if a person's life is dependent on saving the 10 seconds would you try to save that? Indeed, inspirational. Meaningful work is a powerful motivation instead of just making $$!
Enough said. Rest in peace Mr Jobs. You have done your time on earth. Enjoy iHeaven.
Respectfully yours
LU Keehong Mr
Singapore
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Efstathios Tzaros 04/03/2012 02:52 PM in reply to Lu
Dear Mr. Lu,
I totally agree with your point of view. Steve Jobs has passed away and from now on he may be saint Steve Jobs. Everybody praises him and his acts, while when he was alive he was characterized as a idiosyncratic person.
However, we have to admit that the point of articles like this is to inspire the rest of us. To give us a different perspective. To help us realize the way a clever person behaved. After all Steve Jobs was a very special human, but a human. He was persecuted by human defects.
To be perfectly honest, I would like to read of Jobs' reaction to his hubris and what was his reaction after his nemesis and how did his character change after this.
Beyond any doubt, Steve Jobs was a great man who changed the whole world of technology!
Sincerely,
Efstahios Tzaros
Athens, Greece
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Adediranjesus 03/30/2012 10:59 PM
This was certainly inspiring
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CHHETRY Surendra 03/29/2012 02:20 PM
Mind blowing article, jobs was really a great man( innovators, artist and businessman ). His absence is making us dissatisfaction......such man rarely born on earth
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Webmaster Jeni 03/29/2012 01:20 PM
So inspired by his passion. Great article. Great book, tops
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J. Medina 03/29/2012 11:05 AM
This is a great article, no doubt. Insanely great.
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Senthil Balakrishnan 03/29/2012 10:18 AM
Truly inspiring...
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Isaacbeatrice 03/29/2012 09:40 AM
Great minds are revealed in each millennium, and conforming to the norm is not a trait. They may not be perfect, but can effectively transform a society. Steve Jobs was one of a kind. Great writeup.
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Soorya Ravi 03/29/2012 06:12 AM
superb article ! What a great vision The Man Had !
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Lars Skou Nielsen 03/29/2012 04:23 AM
Steve Jobs was passionate to achieve a goal which, in my opinion is very respectable.
That goal seems to be to make a ton of money by turning customers into worshippers by making them think that they are "thinking differently" and are creative with the purchase of the latest I-thing... Cunning plan....
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SCROB TV 04/04/2012 07:58 AM in reply to Lars Skou Nielsen
Many years ago when I was one of the few people I knew, who worked on a Mac (or has heard of one) I already wondered how you could not appreciate a machine that boots up faster every single time you use it, doesn’t catch viruses (reason is irrelevant) and never showed me a blue screen. Now they’re a trillion dollar company, seems like others just had to catch up, but in the end people get the point. There is no use for a machine that should theoretically run faster due to its hardware’s numbers but already boots up slowly because of bad programming.
More importantly the marketing and pure business guys weren’t allowed to screw up the actual product, that unfortunately is a rare exception. In most companies they fired the best workers to replace them with cheap outsourcers and tried to play save and take no risks, therefore never innovating (all smart phones look like the iPhone now).
If you buy a competitor’s smart phone you still get a i-thing because they are a direct rip off, which is easier than coming up with something.
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Sachin Maheshwari 03/29/2012 03:53 AM
Job's acts personally and @ apple will continue to draw inspiration throught decades.
The key message of freeing oneself from everything and keep shedding all the baggage which in turn let you go for what you want is a take away.
His life read also confirm's that world is the same place only perspective's change. Before reading his book majority view Job's negatively but post the insights we all accept what he has given to humanity
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Annie 03/29/2012 02:26 AM
I am in the middle of reading the book about Jobs by Wakter, and by reading this article it just connect each chapter of the book and make the long story short.
Jobs is for sure a genuis, although to copy him will not be wise, but to copy his spirit may give good result. We may not able to change the world as he did, but we can change ourself. By reading about him, it just gives so much pleasure and inspiration.
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Lecueva 03/28/2012 08:45 PM
I read Isaacsons Book about Steve Jobs and sincerely It is an amazing one. But it is not only a book about Jobs and Apple life but it is also and for a far more distance a business book, a leadership book, an entreprenurial book, an ideas book. It is really a transversal assest located in a cross road between technology and humanity; it is a book for us, the human species and to our innovation capabilityies, to wake up them while one is reading it.
Thank you Isaccson. Now I am at the office and I will read this article and I am sure that I will find the same core concept from a man that knew Jobs enought to produce a life masterpiece.
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Murale TA, Cochin. India 03/28/2012 03:20 PM
Jobs is a Genius. And a rare one. Men like him happen rarely. The message I get is to draw few useful principles from his life. But trying to become like him may not be wise. Because the original does not repeat. People who try to copy him, will not succeed. Let us just understand Jobs and celebrate his life and achievements - accepting all his good and not so good aspects.
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Mohinder 03/28/2012 04:27 PM in reply to Murale TA, Cochin. India
very well said indeed, hats off to your goodness
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Mohinder 03/28/2012 03:15 AM
Loved this article and loved the way Jobs worked. It's all about dreaming and then working to make those dreams be true.
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Eric Daly 03/27/2012 09:29 PM
I read Walter's book and was sad when the pages kept turning and I could see the end was coming. Walter was balanced and insightful while describing Steve, warts and all. I would have been honoured as an employee to have been clobbered by Steve over work I had done or not done so long as I continued to be on the payroll. The man was the whole package and would have achieved less if he had behaved differently. His only mistakes were around his diets and the way he looked after his body phyiscally. He brought the future more quickly to us all than it otherwise would have occurred. He was a great man and Walter Isaacson has captured that greatness in a special way.
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Bart Schuster 03/27/2012 06:30 PM
I saw the Isaacson interview on Charlie Rose, its a great interview to accompany this article.
Jobs ideas and practices certainly worked for him but they are not necessarily universal principles. As the article notes, sometimes there is a better business model. Also, open sources allow more creativity by people not under the control of a single corporate structure, and thank God for that kind of openness. Jobs' ideas would seem directed to create a highly structured monolithic tech world with "the great genius" running things, but I think a more polyarchical structure is way better for people in general. In that context, Jobs did a great job as a part of the technology environment.
Bart Schuster
OnlineGraduateSchool.tripod.co...
Twitter.com/arrive2_net
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lawrence serewicz 03/27/2012 07:31 AM
The article is very good and one that many an entrepreneur should consider. Jobs presented himself as he wanted others to see him and he was very successful at what he did. However, I am not sure of the lessons that can be learned. In many ways, he was a man of his times. For example, few entrepreneurs would be in a financial position to tell Corning what they would produce.
What strikes me about Jobs is how he personafies the Prince that Machiavelli was describing. In particular, he knew when not to be good to achieve his results. He also was very adept at making sure that although many saw him, few were able to touch him. In the end, though, his success will be the company's failure.
A creative genius may take abuse and heckling from a fellow genius like Jobs. Many a great player has become that much better for having a great coach. Yet, that relationship only works once. I do not mean to be disrespectful to Mr. Cook, but I cannot see him creating the same intensity or the same loyalty. The creative technological geniuses may take the criticism from Jobs but they are not going to take it from someone else. As a result, they will slowly, but surely, move away from Apple to have their "freedom".
In the end, Jobs could not solve the problem that bedevils all founders. He could not, as a founder, create a company that...
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Jon 03/27/2012 06:58 AM
If I created one of the most closed companies of today - easily the equal of Microsoft in the old days you would not sing my praises. So what is it about Jobs that affects people so deeply. I believe people are really hanging on to the idea of a Apple as a counter culture company, which they no longer are. They have made the rules for playing in the consumer technology market. Your Woodstock free for all has turned into a well planned Madison Square Garden concert.
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Cucciaap 03/26/2012 10:38 PM
Steve Jobs was a transformational leader and one of the greatest innovators of the century. His leadership style will continue to be the subject of analysis for decades to come.
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stockpony 03/26/2012 05:49 PM
i owe Apple a debt of gratitude for finally being able to get something done . . .
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Jvh007 03/26/2012 10:17 PM in reply to stockpony
A synopsis of the book, don't read if you read the book.
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www.art-of-strategy.com 03/26/2012 05:46 PM
Qualities of a Genius
For simplicity I have phrased qualities starting with the letter F. You could use any other word to describe it. Throughout history leaders have succeeded in strategy through these main qualities.
Focused
Fast
Firm
Farsighted
Fearlessness
According to Clausewitz a Genius (Strategist) must have the following attributes:
Courage – Physical and Moral
Determination
Strength of Character – Self Control and Calm
Coup de eiol
His Mind should be:
Inquiring
Comprehensive
Calm
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John Mereness 03/26/2012 02:43 PM
My
father's first employer and career long mentor was Kelly Johnson of Lockheed
Martin Skunkworks (and he grumbled and chomped on his unlit Cigar never taking
no as an answer to anything) and where Kelly Johnson had some of the most noted
military projects in his career, my father has 100's of medical products
from the EKG electrode to Medically Coded Stent in his portfolio. That being
said, I turned around one day to
find that I was equally walking one very lonely road and keeper of the
get it done, progressive, and move business always forward, hire great people
and pave the way for them to be exceptional, Continuous Improvement, and ....
mentality. I do though tend to be the calm in the storm and very level - screaming accomplishes very little - ever.
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Tanmayepal 03/26/2012 02:01 PM
Truly inspiring. It's a combination that cannot be replicated, an approach that cannot be standardised. It's the perfect mix that's so rare.
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MS95 03/26/2012 12:53 PM
Great article,
I guess the hard bit is putting it all together. I've worked for a manager that had the 'Reality Distortion Field' but it was a disaster because her capacity to focus was practically zero. It was certanly the worst year and half of my profesional experiance and at the end our department acheived nothing to write about!
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Kriti 03/26/2012 12:02 AM
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Simply awsome :) Salute to a Real Genius :)
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Jsmithepa 03/25/2012 11:59 AM
This article by Issacson is just an executive summary version of the book. If you read the book, you don't need this. The only thing relevant to the topic was "CEO who study Jobs and decide to emulate his roughness without understanding his ability to generate loyalty make a dangerous mistake."
Am Jobs' fan but we can't bash Microsoft, YET. Do we know for sure Apple will be a more enduring company than Microsoft? That remains to be seen.
Who where corporate CEO has the cache to fire its own board? (1997 Jobs return). Jobs was able to do it because at the time the board had ran out of people who can save the company. By the book, letting a CEO to have that much power is bad corporate governance. So which board will let a CEO have that much power and risk the wrath of the Feds?
Focus yes, but as many critics mentions, others pay a price. As a human, I question, I don't know if it was worth it. I had wish Woz to have stayed and provided some counter balance to Jobs mercurial personality. Well we will never know.
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Tenzing 03/24/2012 07:55 PM
A synopsis of the book. Walter Isaacson is a genius. Jobs story is full simple contradictions starting the "chosen" perspective on is adoption. He will long be remembered.
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Business Success 03/24/2012 08:07 PM in reply to Tenzing
Love the article, it is all about simplicity and getting back to basics, what do we want to achieve?
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Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD 03/24/2012 03:20 PM
Focus is the most important thing. Enjoyed the big message of this piece.
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Solomon Thuo 03/24/2012 02:42 PM
Good read! the concept of standing at the intersection of sciences and humanity makes a lot of sense. this is is what all sales people should be, being able to link how a piece of technology would be beneficial to a human rather than many stories on its features, capabilities and performance.
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Anumakonda Jagadeesh 03/24/2012 08:43 AM
Think Big,Think Differently was the motto of Steve Jobs.
Jobs wasn't just a savvy businessman, he was a visionary who made it his
mission to humanize personal computing, rewriting the rules of user
experience design, hardware design and software design. His actions
reverberated across industry lines: He shook up the music business,
dragged the wireless carriers into the boxing ring, changed the way
software and hardware are sold and forever altered the language of
computer interfaces. Along the way, he built Apple up into one of the
most valuable corporations in the world.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E- mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
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Jon Takaki 03/24/2012 07:49 AM
I would take exception to the belief that Apple products are "aswesome", and I am not alone. Apple targets the average consumer, the one who can't understand how to make things work and who wants what everyone else has. For those who enjoy their freedom and value choice, flexibility, customization, the Apple ecosystem is like a prison, a mirror of Job's control freak personality. I give a lot of credit to Steve Job for what he's been able to achieve, and there are certainly a lot more to be learned about his incredible mind, but let's not kid anyone, his success in designing products comes partly from his belief and understanding that most people like to be led and don't really like freedom. Steve Job thought 85% of people are stupid, and he made sure Apple products would target the majority as opposed to the minority.
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mtngoatjoe 04/04/2012 12:20 PM in reply to Jon Takaki
For me, Apple products are more about what I can do WITH them than what I can do TO them. One could argue that the Android ecosystem is a prison that funnels any creative thoughts into tinkering with the device instead of creating something interesting like movie trailers of the kids for friends and family (and make sure you check out Apple's site to understand what can be done with iMovie on an iPad: http://www.apple.com/ipad/from....
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chano1 03/28/2012 11:38 AM in reply to Jon Takaki
So you would classify people like Walter Murch, who chose to adopt Apple computers and film editing software (Final Cut Pro etc), as one of the 85% of stupid people in the world.
Murch is but one example of an elite cadre of people who chose Apple products because of their untarnished excellence.
May we assume that you are a defining exemplar of that 85% too?
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Dan Andersen 03/25/2012 01:22 PM in reply to Jon Takaki
You're right, Jon. Apple doesn't design its products for the enjoyment of tinkerers. Thank goodness.
Despite that, tinkerers clearly enjoy, delve into, and modify Apple's hardware products and, of course, Apple's Mac OS X is a certified Unix that gives those so inclined plenty of freedom to experiment. I bet you knew that!
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GrandMasterFlash 03/24/2012 02:43 PM in reply to Jon Takaki
It really humorous to hear words such as prison used to describe Apple products. It's also humorous to think that Steve Jobs made stuff for stupid people to understand. Here's a thought: You and everyone else use "dummied" down devices with limited or forced upon options and go on living fully functional and yet highly productive lives ALL the time. Don't believe me? Take a look at all your other products you own; TVs, Stereos, Fridges and even your car. Do any of them error out or create the blue screen of death at the rate that PCs do? Hardly! Now take a look at the Possibility of controlling and customizing those devices with massive options. Planes and the Spaceshuttle are examples of the complexity that even small devices can potentially have in them. (Mind you planes and shuttle need elaborate choices for safety and operation).
Why don't all devices have such space shuttle like complexity? That's because the more COGS in the wheel, the more Complexity and more problems. Take a look at Microsofts plight over the last 20 years.
There are really 2 options people are faced with today. Do people want stuff that works or do they want complexity to change stuff to fit the niche things they want. I would argue that people want stuff to work far more than being able to tinker with it. The proof...
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Jon Takaki 03/25/2012 12:32 AM in reply to GrandMasterFlash
By using the word prison for the Apple ecosystem, it's only because one (especially if you're a programmer/developer) feels the limitation that are imposed unnecessarily. In the end it comes down to locking people in, consumers as well as developers, not to mention the entertainment and publishing industry. Those same tactics were used by Microsoft and that's why so many in the industry despised it. Steve Job probably learned a good lesson from Microsoft, who had all the programmers coding for Windows throughout the 90s. If you analyse Apple products (physical products, services, as well as programming paradigm) and the role each plays in the Apple ecosystem, it's not hard to see the grand vision of Steve Job. Make Apple the only choice in town, whether you're a consumer, publisher, gaming company, programmer, music label etc... He has certainly succeeded to a great extent, but as Steve Wozniak predicted, the same thing that happened with Apple vs Microsoft is happening again, this time with Apple vs Android.
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Guest 03/24/2012 04:55 PM in reply to GrandMasterFlash
The blue screen of death - I've been in the IT industry for 16 years and can count on one hand how many times this has happened. Seems this line constantly gets used to trash Microsoft products. Even my iphone crashes from time to time so lets not try to paint the picture that Apple products work all the time. Also, my laptop, PC, windows phone, xbox are all plug and play devices. I've not had to tinker with any of them to get them to work. If you are referring to database, networks and any other related infrastrucuture software.......of course it's designed for a set of niche people to work with. You wouldn't want end users setting up your network or configuring your server. And besides that, from a set up perspective, I've found Microsoft products very easy to set up. You simply walk through the set up. Anyone with half a brain can do that!
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GrandMasterFlash 03/24/2012 08:49 PM in reply to Guest
Isn't it really interesting that I did not associate the blue screen of death to Microsoft but you did. With that term I'm referring to the general erroring out of computers and not particulairly of the hard-stop shutdown per-se and how that does not readily happen to dummied down devices such stereos and so forth. How many times have you had to tinker with your registry because things are locked up in there? Spam and so on. Also, why isn't it that the same "niche" people don't drive stereos and other consumer devices to new complex heights and new levels of customization as they do with PCs, Macs and now smartphones. What if you wanted a pink stereo??
Companies of this type do function better on mass averages and not niches. One of Steve Jobs' massive company change as mentioned by the author is his shift from creating for the niche and hitting the top 4 to 6 focused market. Home and Work and then Laptop, Macs and Portable devices. Apple is not interested in making an iPhone also for people who like keyboards example. Do a search for discontinued Android devices and see what you find for all the niche phones they had come up with and now gone. Lastly, Microsoft is a prime example of a company gone out of control with their own software. Ironically, their saving grace has been whenever they...
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William Mangan 03/24/2012 09:52 AM in reply to Jon Takaki
I exercise my freedom of choice by using Apple products. They are plenty flexible. Easily customizable, too. And they work. Who's in prison if you have to spend time tweaking your phone, computer, whatever to make it work the way you want it to? I feel much freer not having to worry that said gadgets are not going to work as expected.
Do you have a watch? Did you open it up because it didn't work the way you want it to? Can you make a watch? Maybe if you really want to. I can't; wouldn't want to. I'd take it back for exchange or refund.
If your car breaks down, to you do all your own repairs? Or do you take it to a mechanic? (Who is probably stupid because he doesn't really know exactly how to program a computer or customize a cell phone.) He probably thinks you're stupid because you don't know how to do a complete tune-up or install a timing belt.
We all have our areas of expertise, whether vocational or avocational. It's really not fair to characterize people as stupid because their area of expertise is different from yours or mine.
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Jeffducklow 03/24/2012 03:01 AM
We venerate Jobs because we love the elegance and near
perfect functionality of the products that came from his genius. And clearly he was capable of attracting,
inspiring and motivating great talent to convert his vision into products that
changed our lives. When pushed by Mr.
Isaacson, Jobs asks that we measure him only by his results. And by nearly any standard, his results were exemplary
– a paragon for all business executives to aspire to. But is it is a fair request to gauge Mr.
Job’s leadership – or the leadership of any business executive -- only by
results? I plead not. We should need
only think for a moment to recall recent leaders that guided followers to focus
on the end results and not the process by which the results are achieved. Our economy is yet recovering from the
housing debacle that emanated from this line of thought. Yes, results are
important. But equally important are the
means to achieve the results.
In measuring Job’s leadership, most observers would affirm he
was phenomenal in his determination and superior in his intellect – two fundamental
elements of great leadership. But Jobs
was strikingly feckless in emotional maturity and unconvincing in his
virtues. His temperamental nature and
his narcissistic character were major flaws in his leadership performance. Executives aspiring to take lessons from Jobs
leadership should note the he had half of the leadership pillars mastered. Imagine how much more effective and
influential he would...
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Brad 03/25/2012 08:54 PM in reply to Jeffducklow
Jeff & Vikram ~
Absolutely. Couldn't agree more and have said so in other postings on other sites when I see other people lionizing SJ.
How much more, and what a legacy of greatness and kindness could he have left if he'd only worked to change what he himself was self-aware enough to call "brutality" ... I wouldn't fault him as much if he truly seemed unaware. But in fact he was aware of the effect of his behavior on others and didn't feel it was worth changing. That to me is sad.
None of this detracts from his genius or ability to build amazing products. The ends do *not* justify he means however. Not in my book.
Thanks again Jeff & Vikram.
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Brad 03/25/2012 09:15 PM in reply to Brad
I meant idealizing, not lionizing...
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Vikram_munshi 03/24/2012 03:50 AM in reply to Jeffducklow
Very Well Said, Jeff. I loved the point raised on evaluating the means to achieve the results. While I am an Apple fan and admire Jobs on how he has impacted the lives of millions , readers should not believe that it genius comes couched in rudeness etc. The leadership elements raised by you can be present in a genius.:-)
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oncenever 03/23/2012 10:00 AM
it is still better to be known as a good person, that being known merely as a creator. Impact lives - not balance sheets. He could touch the 'touchy' side of human begins with his technology - that's why we still remember him.
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HansjörgLeichsenring 03/23/2012 05:40 AM
Very interesting post and an awesome discussion. In my blog I wrote some postings about his success and how he could have achieved it to give examples for financial institution leaders.
What thrills me of Steve Jobs is his line of success with Apple and his addiction to his ides. Even when knowing that his life will end much to short, he still worked hard for Apples success instead of enjoying his life.
Maybe the real secret is, that he really enjoyed his life with Apple and follows there the line of Martin Luther who said “even when you will be dead by tomorrow – plant an Apple tree today”.
Kind regards from Germany
Hansjörg
http://www.der-bank-blog.de/
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Tony Mizerano 03/23/2012 12:34 AM
I do think he could have been a "better" person but all of his designs were brilliant.
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Wayne Spivak 03/22/2012 04:21 PM
This article could have been re-titled "A High Tech Guy with a High Touch Persona; or Just design around the KISS principle".
Now if more business owners and educators (can I say even our elected leaders) would follow some of this advice we'd be the country we were in the 40's to 60's....
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lovelace2663 03/22/2012 11:51 AM
The bottom line about Steve Jobs is this: If the man weren't a genius, none of his bullying, perfectionism, or abuse would have meant a thing. He would have been the middle manager from hell, the horrible boss, the short-sighted CEO. Instead of being mythologized, people who knew him, and especially those who worked for him, would have breathed a irrepressible sigh of relief at his death, finally free of his tyranny.
It is genius that makes us forgive personality traits we would not tolerate in people of lesser gifts. A brat becomes a visionary. A bully becomes an inspired leader. And, much the same as with wealth, an excess of genius gives a sense of entitlement, a carte blanche to believe that the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to them. Thus, a narcissist is born.
In Steve Jobs' case, perhaps his narcissism is warranted, based on his accomplishments. But Picasso, also a raging narcissist, caused at least two women to commit suicide over his torturously cruel behavior. I'd like to read a book that weighs the achievements of Apple against the personal cost to the people - personal and professional - who were damaged by Jobs' self-indulgent management style.
But still, fascinating article. The only danger I see is that all those Jobs wanna-be's out there - the ones who have the personality problems without the genius - might see it as raison d'etre and battle cry to fuel their own egocentric...
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Vikram_munshi 03/24/2012 03:42 AM in reply to lovelace2663
Spot on..Blind imitation can be very dangerous in this case
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Catherinejsidoti 03/23/2012 03:04 PM in reply to lovelace2663
Well said!
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E.M. 03/22/2012 03:08 PM in reply to lovelace2663
I categorically disagree. You are far too focused on the reported "abuse" that he dished to his employees (perhaps you're coloring your view with your own experiences). As a 15 year military veteran, I understand Mr. Jobs's process: weed out the weak-willed. Human beings, by design, improve when pushed to their limits. In the physical realm, this is obvious: don't exercise, and you become fat and unable to perform physical activity at your peak. Push your body, however, and as the Soloflex commercial stated years ago, "the stronger and more beautiful it becomes".
This concept applies in the mental realm as well. In basic training, you get yelled at, berated, physically and mentally challenged to your limits. Why? Is it because drill sergeants are jerks? No. Their mission is to see who can handle the loads, adapt, and accomplish the mission. This is what Mr. Jobs did. He had a mission and vision, and needed people who COULD accomplish what he wanted. Those who could not handle the pressure were free to do something else, somewhere else.
To consider his behavior narcissistic, self-indulgent, and arrogant is completely missing the point of the behavior. He DROVE people to do great things. It appears (I never met the man) it was all about the mission, as evidenced by Apple's UNBELIEVABLE attention to detail in everything that bears their logo. I have felt a great sense of satisfaction from accomplishing things "jerks" made me do, that I hated them for...
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Brad 03/25/2012 09:29 PM in reply to E.M.
I agree with Arkadius, truly great leaders can accomplish the promotion of the talented ("A players"), the weeding out of the unsuited, etc. without resorting to abuse.
Drill sergeants are playing a role with 17-20 year olds and preparing them for the brutality of war. The military understands the value of excellence and of morale much much better than Jobs did. I admire great military leaders, very few are narcissists (with notable exceptions of course).
Mr. Jobs' whims, caprice, and humiliation of others are not "perfectionism" or "insanely great" product design taken to its logical end, but rather are personality disorders that, frankly, prevented him from achieving even greater goals is his life.
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mtngoatjoe 04/04/2012 11:57 AM in reply to Brad
Brad, you also have to look at why people would want to work at Apple. Nobody went to work at Apple because they thought Steve Jobs was a nice guy. They go to Apple because of the challenge. Unfortunately, there are some people who don't understand that or don't respond well to that kind of environment (the same thing happens at basic training), but for the most part, people who go to Apple do it because of the chance to do something incredible. And I think most people understand that there are sacrifices they will have to make. For them, the abusive behavior is worth it. We may ask ourselves about the psychology of people who put themselves in that situation, but I don't think that will get us very far. As far as Steve was concerned, people could step up to the challenge, or go somewhere else.
I could never mimic his leadership style; I'm just not that kind of person. But Steve's style either worked well for some people, or they put up with it because the ends justified the means. I feel bad for those who didn't know what they were getting into, but there's no shame in moving to another company to look for a leadership style more in tune with their personality.
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Arkadiusz Dymalski 03/22/2012 04:38 PM in reply to E.M.
I'm sure that from Mr. Jobs (as well as people who admire him for what he achieved) perspective it looks really great - pursuing own vision and weeding out the weak who can't make it. But when I look at people who work under such leader (and react like Debi Coleman mentioned in the article) all I see is rationalization, similar to the phenomenon of Stockholm Syndrome or severe initiation rituals in fraternities etc. The result is simple: if someone is abusive to me and I don't do anything about it I need to admire him to reduce the cognitive dissonance. I think it's completely different kind of lesson in leadership.
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Sherry Goodvin 03/22/2012 11:11 AM
Steve Jobs was an inspiring leader for these times, I am humbled by his genius and creativity. He truly brought an intersection of liberal arts and science, and we didn't know we needed it!!!
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Eddie Howden 03/22/2012 05:43 AM
It is indeed a leadership lesson. As his life was, difinitely not leadership mainstream thinking. Valuable none the less.
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Ed 03/21/2012 10:35 PM
No mention above or here of "Command and Collaborate"?
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Hubert Rampersad, PhD. 03/21/2012 07:52 PM
Walter, the most important lesson we can learn from Steve Jobs is Dream Big http://bit.ly/A1ofK1
Hubert Rampersad, PhD
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Kelly Jack 03/21/2012 03:59 PM
Steve Jobs was a blessing to this generation.
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Bungee Loyalty 03/21/2012 03:36 PM
No one will ever question Steve's brilliance, innovation, wisdom, persistence and decisiveness. Some will always question his management style. The debate will rage on...
As far as out-sourcing goes we need to accept that we live in a global marketplace. It is naive to think otherwise. There are countries that have seemingly: Never ending supplies of affordable skilled labor (China), never ending supplies of oil (Middle East) and frankly never ending supply of technological innovation (U.S.). There will obviously be shifts overtime as well.
My company is in a situation where we have to make a challenging decision right now. Do we outsource some programming work to India for $20/hour or do it domestically for $225/hour. It is easy to say that we should keep all work here in the U.S. but put my hat on and ask yourself "what would I do?"
Frankly, we are going to keep the work state-side for reasons of: speed, simplicity of communications and superior project management. However, those costs must be factored into the price of our products and some customers will not be willing to pay for the premium. Learn more about our story here: http://www.bungeeloyaltyprogra...
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MysticMoods 03/22/2012 01:58 PM in reply to Bungee Loyalty
How much overhead is in that $225/hr cost? Even with benefit loads and social security factored in, most engineers cost less than $80/hr.
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Howard 03/22/2012 01:19 PM in reply to Bungee Loyalty
I'm going to tell you right now, if you outsource your programming, you are very likely going to get garbage. I've seen this happen time and time again. You'll have a much better product picking talented developers, inspiring them write elegant code at $225 an hour versus hiring a team of Indians at $20 an hour. A majority of the code I see that comes out of India violates basic principals. Lord help you if there is any database work being done. I've not seen anything done correctly yet. While I'm not going to say every developer in India is terrible, the term "you get what you pay for" very much applies.
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Jonathan Rotenberg 03/21/2012 11:26 AM
Dear Bwdeshaman & Suzhoner,
Steve Jobs was just a human being—like you or me—who had no money and no college degree. He pursued his passions in life. Steve made more than his share of mistakes in life; making mistakes is how we grow and learn as human beings. Steve was always honest and never shied away from owning his mistakes and taking responsibility for them.
Suzhoner, your understanding of Steve's relationship with his ex-girlfirend, Chrisann Brennan and his daughter Lisa Brennan Jobs is not correct. Steve and Chrisann's relationship was complicated, and Steve made—by his own admission—some horrible mistakes in how he dealt with the paternity of his daughter. But all three reconciled and became very close. Steve was never evasive about owning up to his mistakes with Chrisann and Lisa, and taking responsibility as a father.
Bwdeshaman, the "Chinese child slave labor" you refer to is an urban myth. You are no better than a supermarket tabloid for spreading such nonsense. The irony about Chinese labor practices is that us Americans buy more of our manufactured products from China than any other country. (E.g., nearly all consumer electronics we buy are made in China, much of what is sold in Wal-Mart, etc.) China has NEVER had the standards of workplace safety that we take for granted here in the U.S.; yet we continue to support these labor practices every day through our purchase decisions. It's extraordinary how people like Bwdeshaman choose—of all companies—Apple to crucify about...
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Gautam 04/15/2012 04:33 AM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
This is one of the best comment/interpretation of SJ's life that I have seen. It is true that we need to implement the lessons, and start focusing on ourselves, and the world around.
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Bwdeshaman 03/21/2012 12:20 PM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
If apple was truly committed to this then why not manufacture in the same place your executives reside?
The only lesson I'm seeing here is that you can still build an empire on the backs of the bruised and get called great for it.
Lets be honest here, companies choose places like China because they know the potential to exploit labor exists.
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Jonathan Rotenberg 03/21/2012 05:55 PM in reply to Bwdeshaman
Bwdeshaman,
A question for you: If any Apple executive had any secret desire to exploit anyone, WHY ON EARTH would she or he go work for a company like Apple? There are thousands of companies (e.g., DeBeers, ExxonMobil, etc.) that offer numerous of opportunities throughout one's career to exploit and degrade others. Steve Jobs surrounded himself with idealists who wanted to make the world a better, more humane place.
Is your secret wish, Bedeshaman, to build your own empire yourself on the backs and misery of others? If so, I can assure you that you would hate working at Apple. Such attitudes are not welcome at Apple.
There are NUMEROUS reasons why EVERY U.S. mass-market consumer-products company manufactures all major consumer electronics products in Asia and none have major consumer-products manufacturing operations in the U.S. One reason is that countries like China have spent >40 years building deep industry/government partnerships to enable massive supply chain ecosystems--which continuously ratchet up speed & quality while reducing costs for the end-consumer. We are so suspicious of the idea in the U.S. that government can be a good thing for business, we have made it nearly impossible for the U.S. to be competitive in consumer electronics supply systems.
Apple could follow your advice, Bwdeshamn, and build their consumer electronic products here in the U.S. Apple would probably have to sell iPads for >$3,000 each, significantly reduce product quality, and slow down the rate of product enhancement and innovation. If...
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guest 03/21/2012 02:55 PM in reply to Bwdeshaman
There are plenty of reasons why Apple and other companies don't make electronics here in US. Major reason is we don't produce enough engineers. American kids are too lazy to get into Engineering schools. Because it takes longer to graduate and subjects are harder.
(Edited by a moderator)
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Judy 03/23/2012 12:16 AM in reply to guest
That's right about the U.S. lack of engineers - I seem to remember that Obama asked Jobs why he didn't hire more of his empoloyees in the U.S. and Jobs replied that he couldn't get 50,000 qualified engineers here.
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Bwdeshaman 03/21/2012 03:54 PM in reply to guest
I'm not sure about the lack of engineers. I work in industrial automation and many of the US born engineers have been to China to build factories there.
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Gautam 04/15/2012 04:30 AM in reply to Bwdeshaman
Looks like you need to investigate more!
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guest 03/21/2012 10:33 AM
" I asked him again about his tendency to be rough on people. “Look at the results,” he replied. "
I'm sorry, but to me that is no excuse. It is a rationalization of bad behavior. There are other 'results' that he failed to consider and therein is defined his view of morality.
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Bwdeshaman 03/21/2012 09:43 AM
Is it the love of simplicity that drives apple to exploit child labor overseas? They then take a machine that was made by slaves and charge twice as much .. Why does anyone admire the father of this monster?
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Usman Zafar Paracha 03/21/2012 08:22 AM
I researched on the last six to seven years of the life of Steve Jobs and found that his more than 70% of innovation came in those last seven years of his life. I wrote about that in my blog.
I think we must consider his last years' work, when he strongly felt that he has to do some work, so that some important stuff can be invented.
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ykm 03/21/2012 04:49 AM
Awesome insights into a great mind - the comments of J. R. above add value to the article ..
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Tanvir Wahid Lashker 03/21/2012 02:43 AM
Never lose hope strategy of the Steve Jobs is very much inspiring to us. As an Entrepreneur or as a leader a guy have to face a lot of problems. but it is a great quality of the leaders that to deal with it and lead from the front to change the game. In this case Steve Jobs is very successful.
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Jonathan Rotenberg 03/21/2012 01:15 AM
Isaacson has a lot of good facts, but misses HOW Steve led, HOW he made decisions, and HOW he created the products and companies he did. Steve spent his entire life trying to teach a very different approach to business leadership. Most people (including Isaacson) weren't able to listen during Steve's life, because they were so stuck in their own preconceived ideas.
I knew Steve closely for more than 30 years. He introduced me to meditation and Buddhism when I was 18 and he was 26. Steve struggled mightily to try to get Westerners to wake up from their half-alseep, wrong ideas about how business works.
The essence of Steve's approach to leadership are contained in the two-word tagline with which he relaunched Apple in 1997: THINK DIFFERENT. Isaacson projects a lot of his own misconceptions onto what Steve meant by "Think Different." Isaacson mistakenly attributes delusional 'magical' thinking, perfectionism, reality distortion, and artistic exuberance to how Steve did what he did.Steve was a deeply dedicated, disciplined Buddhist practitioner. He followed an Eastern wisdom tradition that is antithetical to many Western theoretical models about business leadership. Buddhism sees competition, free markets, asset-management theories, and much of what is inculcated at Harvard Business School not as first-principles to reify, but as relatively minor, man-made artifacts.The source of all wisdom in Eastern traditions—and what Steve meant in the words "Think Different"—is MINDFULNESS. Mindfulness means paying attention to your present-moment experience as it is received through your sense doors. Where HBS...
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Imad Khaja 05/07/2012 12:39 PM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
If he had gone for an MBA he would have become a successfull manager and probably CEO of a large company... but I wonder if he could still remain as creative and inspirational as he did with out an MBA.
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Thomas Huynh 03/24/2012 08:01 PM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
Very few people in business understand Eastern philosophy much less grasp Eastern wisdom refined over thousands of years. I would disagree with Mr. Rotenberg -- you don't need to throw away what you learned, but be childlike in learning new concepts. If you truly ready, see my recent presentation at NEIU:
http://forum.sonshi.com/showth...
I'd be happy to share with you more.
Sincerely,
Thomas Huynh, author
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Tanmayepal 03/26/2012 02:19 PM in reply to Thomas Huynh
Thomas, the link is not valid.
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Judy 03/23/2012 12:27 AM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
I agree with both the article above by Isaacson and Jonathan Rotenberg about Steve Jobs' motivations and modus operandi. As a successful innovator, businesswoman, artist, and student and practioner of Zen Buddhism, what I know of Steve Jobs makes total sense to me. Thank you to Isaacson and Rotenberg for enlightening me more. What a fascinating human being Steve was, what a beautiful man! Lucky you who knew and loved him!
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Roscoe 03/21/2012 11:24 AM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
Is "Boddhisatva Warrior" code for "jerk"?
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Jonathan Rotenberg 03/21/2012 07:24 PM in reply to Roscoe
Hello, Roscoe,
No, "Boddhisattva Warrior" is not code for "jerk." It refers to an individual who has dedicated his or her life to alleviating the suffering of others. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
If you're interested in learning more, Bill Moyers did a very interesting interview with Ani Pema Chodron a few years ago. Pema, a Buddhist nun, explains what a Boddhisattva Warrior is and how she became one. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/fait...
Jonathan
www.facebook.com/jonathan.rote...
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Arkadiusz Dymalski 03/22/2012 04:59 PM in reply to Jonathan Rotenberg
I'm not able to understand how calling other person
‘asshole who never do anything right’ can be associated with Buddhism and 'dedication to alleviating the suffering of others'. Honestly, the more I read about the way Mr. Jobs behaved, the more I believe that he completely failed to implement the actual essence of Buddhism.
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chano1 03/28/2012 11:46 AM in reply to Arkadiusz Dymalski
You mean there are no Buddhist assholes?
Who knew?
I think Buddha might have disagreed with you. He was a pragmatist.
You should review the morality of many Buddhist leaders in Sri Lanka, for example, if you want to observe a multitude of self-serving, deeply un-Buddha-like, assholes.
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chano1 03/28/2012 11:49 AM in reply to chano1
I should qualify what I say by adding that it was in Sri Lanka alone, that Buddhist monks and priests publicly endorsed the rightness of killing dissidents and ordinary citizens during the civil war there.
It was a notable first for Buddhism.
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Phani 03/26/2012 02:20 AM in reply to Arkadiusz Dymalski
I think there is a difference. For someone who is as passionate about what he was doing those words would sound like "take a 2nd shot, there is something more to it". Trust me, its nothing more than that.
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Brad 03/25/2012 09:41 PM in reply to Arkadiusz Dymalski
+1
I am a Buddhist practitioner of over 25 years, having done greater than 100 days of silent retreat, etc.
Steve had an aesthetic sense informed by his practice, but he failed (utterly, in my opinion) in healing the personality demons that haunted his life.
I'll repeat again, as I did above that Steve was a genius and a passionate, talented, in some ways loving parent, etc. but he was aware of his personal shortcomings and chose to not do anything about them.
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mr_peterson 03/24/2012 08:22 PM in reply to Arkadiusz Dymalski
Yes. But he kept trying.
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