These days I am facing the lack of having a role model that I could learn from and from which traits I could borrow. Steve Jobs was indeed a person who left a big footprint on the planet Earth, so I decided that he might be a person that I could learn a lot from. So, after watching several movies, I decided that it was time to read the book, which is different in many ways and has a lot more details and stories. The first objective being settled, I considered that it would be a good idea to read a book about (maybe) the most iconic entrepreneurs from the Valley, as I will go visit San Francisco during my learning journey.
The book is about Steve Jobs’ life and the journey that he took with Apple - what was before this company was created, its early beginnings, and breaching into the market as a successful story. Apple’s story is marvelous in many ways: its capacity to innovate is amazing. They are the true definition of differentiating in the market with strong core values that were driven by Jobs. We could see how his traits and feelings became reality and this is awesome.
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Jobs was a person who was mainly focused on product development - bringing to the table needs that people had no idea that they had. This is an example of a rare start-up that wasn't born out of a perceived and researched need that the people had, but a gut feeling - something very risky that made Jobs’ job in the company hard: he had to convince people of the needs that people didn’t yet have. Which was hard. But one of his main abilities is to convince people of nearly everything and anything - no matter how hard, crazy, or impossible things may have sounded. I would qualify him in the “genius in identifying needs” league, which, combined with the execution, a top-tier team, and the capacity to adapt to the continuously developing market, led to their success. Jobs was the leader of the people that were creating amazing. I wonder if his skills were native or if they were trained.
The team: Jobs & Wozniak - is the perfect mix of business development, product design & tech that any startup needs. Business development and design were the top skills of Steve, while the technology part was left in the hands of the skillful Woz. Jobs - a bold and fixist, creative and visionary, while Woz was an introverted nerd, they had a perfect match that for sure influenced the way the company was built. The thing that left me was the relationship that they had during their journey: it was not pink since its beginning & their personality were radically different. They had episodes of good times & bad times. However, they got through them together until they became market leaders. I wish I would one day find a partner as Woz was for Jobs back in the time they started the venture.
Apple’s culture was another thing that I deeply discovered by reading the book. A company can not be better than its vision, values, and employees. Apple’s culture was born from Steve’s vision and now, in every product that they built, it can be seen – no matter if it is an iPod, iPhone, Mac, an app, or an in-store experience. Apple wasn’t all about the product, it was about how it makes you feel owning their products, social status, and seamless experience of their OS. Their attention to detail paid off, and one of my takeaways is this. I think I could implement a better approach to the details of my life and business after having these insights from the book. Jobs’ vision was that Apple had to be unique and genuine – not to become a copycat of IBM or Microsoft’s software – and this aspect was highly communicated inside and outside their organization. Their strongest asset, in my opinion, is the fact that people love their brand - they are visionaries that inspire others – and not followers. If they had followed Microsoft, for instance, they would not have become the company they are today, but probably a mediocre software company with no hope of achieving greatness.
Being the market leader requires lots of sacrifices also - Jobs had lots of difficult periods that he speaks about, but none kept him away from his dream of achieving greatness. I am curious what Apple would look like if Jobs was still alive, compared to what’s now. This thing would be impossible, though, I would have enjoyed looking at their evolution while Steve was still managing the company. Unfortunately, this is not possible.
Jobs mentions that Apple products are designed after the learnings he took away from a Calligraphy class, and my learning is that opportunities may come up from places and activities that I didn’t think of. I bet that nobody would have thought that a calligraphy class would be so important for a person, nor that this type of course may be useful for business at all. It is surprising to find out such details about this company’s creation.
Even though it’s a bit far-fetched, MemoShop couldn’t have gone from a startup launched in a garage to one of the most valuable businesses in the entire world, but I believe Flip has this big potential. We have the resources that we need to succeed. This book puts a brick in the walls of my dreams. What may I apply: the desire to build something big - a better product for our customers.
Another thing that I’ve learned about is how a board works and why is it important for a company to grow. It may bring a fresh and new perspective to the company. It is nice to also know now that the board has the power to fire even the CEO, as in Jobs’ case. After a few years, he came back as the CEO of Apple, with a fresh vision, and launched a few awesome new products.
On a human side, I see in Jobs a true leader who started in difficult conditions. He was given to adoption, adopted, and raised in a new family, in which luckily he was encouraged to deal with electronics from an early age. Then he got a job at Atari, which would be surprising for an entrepreneur in his state (made entrepreneur vs born entrepreneur dilemma). Afterward, he created Apple and its products, but it was never easy - he started sales from a garage and went to several pitches for investment but didn’t succeed. Still, he didn’t give up, built a team, and skyrocketed the business.
Indeed, Jobs is a role model, though he had downsides also, and did things that, in my opinion, were wrong - what I did not appreciate in him was that he was taking drugs, considering that this gave him a wider approach to business and life as well. I can not appreciate the way he treated his family life, even if he was a genius in imagining the products of the future. Success comes with sacrifice, and I consider if I should do such.
Steve Jobs’ biography is an example of what a person should be like to achieve having a company like Apple. I had a lot of learnings from getting to know his history and I wish I will apply as many learnings as possible. I will use the opportunity to learn more from the Learning Journey that I will be having in Silicon Valley.
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