After reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, I have to share 19 key lessons that impressed me. Jobs may not be the leader that is comfortable to work with but he certainly understood his times and acted upon it.
Thank you Lucian for a great book!
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1. Apple’s first marketing philosophy (initiated by Mike Markulla):
- A. empathy: We will understand our client’s needs better than anybody.
- B. focus: To accomplish our goal we need to eliminate all secondary opportunities.
- C. projection: People DO judge a book by its covers. If we will present our products in an original and creative way, we will project these attributes in the product itself (e.g. an Macbook or iPad cover).
2. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
3. Whoever takes its software seriously should make its own hardware.
4. Jobs making an offer to Xerox:
"I will let you invest a million dollars in Apple if you open the doors for me to Xerox Parc..."
5. Picasso had a saying: "Good artists copy while great artists steal!" We were never afraid to steal great ideas.
6. Between idea and execution shadow appears. Great ideas are just a part of the process. Execution is just as important.
7. A design model for Jobs: Eichler's modern, simple, clean houses (accessible to) for the masses. Also, Bahaus movement was a model for him.
8. Simplification is the absolute sophistication.
9. Great art creates the taste, it doesn't follow. (e.g. Porsche)
10. In the first 30 years of life you create your habits. In the following 30, your habits create you.
11. A great company makes you discover its values from the first impression.
12. Things lead to their opposite! (e.g. diet, adopting a di-sensual opinion, working hard)
13. Am effective way to make a request:
Is Disney happy to work with Pixar ?
(yes...)
Well, is Pixar happy to work with Disney ?
(no, it's not! What would make us happy is to produce a film)
14. I come to understand why (...some MS products) are a crap: they don't love their products! We won because we, personally, love music. When you work to make something for your best friend or family, you won't stop. If you don't love your product, you will not be willing to work the extra hours and weekends and also to challenge the status quo.
15. Why did Sony failed to evolve in the portable music devices business ?
Because it's composed of different independent divisions with their own P&L evaluation.
Apple is not. It works in flexible teams like one entity with only one P&L as a result indicator.
16. Do not be afraid about self-canibalisation. If you do not self-canibalise, somebody else will do it for you! (e.g. Ipod vs Iphone vs Ipad)
17. Knowing that I will die soon is the best decision making tool I have ever used for the big choices in life! Because all - hopeless dreams, pride, fear of embarrassment or failure - fails in front of death - leaving only the important stuff. To remember that your are going to die is the single most effective way in avoiding the trap of making you believe you have something to loose. [...] You have no reason not to follow your heart.
18. [Steve Jobs] Was taking counter-positions in a dialogue in order to stimulate debate and continuous improvement.
19. Jobs didn't follow the PR best practices Book: he decided to rewrite it! (by changing the topic from iPhone 4 problems with the antenna to all Smartphones limitations) Nothing kills humor more than a general and boring truth.
" We are not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want our users to be happy."
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