Steve Jobs is one of the most fascinating icons of our age. He had revolutionary impact across multiple industries – personal computers, mobile phones, music, movies, retailing. His record of innovation and transformation is unbelievable, perhaps the tallest amongst business leaders in recent history. Recently I read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. It is a detailed life story of a complex and fascinating personality. The book surprised me as Jobs came across as lot more complex than what I knew earlier. I was also rather taken aback and disappointed by the many imperfections in his personality. However, as I persevered through Isaacson’s tome there developed a better understanding and even deeper respect for Jobs and Apple’s remarkable achievements. I thought I would synthesize and share the 11 key lessons I have taken away from Jobs extraordinary life story.
- Passion. The defining characteristic of Jobs was his sheer intensity. And that intensity arose from his 3 primary passions – to build great products, to build Apple into an enduring company, and to make a ‘dent into the universe’. The most visible of his passions was his passion for products that made him prioritize products over profits and strive for perfectionism. This passion for products clearly paid rich dividends as Apple ended up creating a series of industry shaping innovative products that also led to great financial success. He believed that life does not just happen to you but that you can shape the future. His philosophy is well captured by Apples’ famous 1997 ‘Think Different’ commercial – “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” This great passion for making a real difference was the force that led him to incredible feats.
- Intersection of Engineering and Arts. For me one of the most unique aspects of Steve Jobs personality was his ability to straddle and assimilate the seeming contrasting worlds of engineering and arts. He had a range of eclectic interests ranging from music to calligraphy to Hindu philosophy to Zen Buddhism. He was able to bring intuition and empathy from this world of humanities into the staid world of engineering and technology. That was perhaps a distinguishing feature of Apple that separated its products so much from other technology companies. Jobs put it nicely, “I’m one of the few people who understands how producing technology requires intuition and creativity, and how producing something artistic takes real discipline.” This concept of intersection has many lessons for both the new age professionals and for industries in need of transformation. Significant innovation perhaps happens not within a box but at the intersection of different fields. This might increasingly become a formula for the future.
- End-to-end ownership. Jobs quest for perfection led to his compulsions for Apple to have end-to-end control of every product that it made. He doggedly pursued vertical integration across design, hardware, software and content. This approach could be attributed to Steve Jobs obsession with control. However, there is a positive basis to this approach. Steve believed that he had to take responsibility for ensuring that the customer got a superb product and for that end-to-end ownership was necessary. Ability to integrate hardware, software and content into one unified system enabled Apple to impose simplicity and avoid the fragmentation that ‘open architecture’ approach could lead to. This ‘closed lop’ approach was a key secret behind Apples’s success. It led to great products, helped Apple achieve high profit margins even with small market share, and was the foundation for new innovative products like iPod, iPhone and iPad. Jobs example explains better to me why some entrepreneurs who have a long-term orientation look to have end-to-end control over all aspects of the value chain.
- Simplicity. Steve Jobs had a strong belief in simplicity and minimalism likely influenced by his interest in Zen Buddhism. His maxim was that “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. This mantra is reflected in both his products and in his personal life. The intuitive usability of Apple products, which has been one of the keys to their success, was driven by the focus on reducing clutter and ensuring that interfaces were as simple as possible. This simplicity was achieved not by avoiding but my mastering complexity. It took a lot of thought and detailing to get to the simple designs that would be most intuitive for users. Jony Ive, Apples’ design chief captures this philosophy well, “You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.” Simplicity is reflected in Jobs personal life as well – whether it is his trademark black turtleneck shirt and denim dress or his relatively Spartan home. He believed that material possessions often cluttered life rather than enriching it. Jobs example brings out both the value of simplicity and also the depth that goes into achieving simplicity.
- Reality distortion. One of the more surprising discoveries from Isaacson’s book was Jobs ’reality distortion field’ or simply put bending reality. Jobs would envision seemingly impossible outcomes. However, he had the ability to get others to trust him and then see reality the way he wanted often against their judgment. This led them to achieving outcomes that would have appeared impossible to themselves earlier. One of Jobs friends put it nicely, “If he’s decided that something should happen, them he’s jus going to make it happen. If you trust him, you can do things.” At some level this seems delusional and even manipulative. However, it does prove that extraordinary results can be achieved by having a very clear picture of the outcomes you want, a strong will and conviction to achieve them, and confidence and charisma to focus and align others on achieving that vision.
- Perfectionism. Jobs was a perfectionist. He was not just a great visionary but had an incredible eye for detail. Isaacson’s book has many examples where Jobs picked up mistakes that that entire product team would miss. Jobs had also imbibed a philosophy that people do judge a ‘book by its cover’. He would spend incredible amount of time on the product packaging and its initial look and feel for the customer. However, it was not just about the look n feel for Jobs. He was equally obsessed about getting the internals of all his products perfect. He had learnt early in his life from his father that a good carpenter uses good wood and finish even for the insides of a cupboard. He carried this lesson throughout his life. There is a fascinating story how he insisted that the rows in the circuit of the Apple computers be lined perfectly. Jobs perfectionism is a great lesson for senior executives often obsessed with grand strategy that ‘God is in the detail’.
- Focus. Jobs was able to channelize his intensity and perfectionism through sharp focus. On his return to Apple in 1997 he saved the company from bankruptcy by reducing the number of products and focusing on single products in each of 4 well-defined segments. There are many stories of how in his business meetings he would take charge of the Whiteboard and would bring down the many ideas generated into 3 priorities. His focus extended in choosing people to work with. He wanted to work only with A-players and was brutal in weeding out the B-players. His view was that he did not want to waste his time and dilute the organization quality with B-players. His obsessive focus did sometimes have negative effects most notably in his personal life. He would filter out whatever he did not want to and/or have the time to focus on. This resulted in him ignoring his first daughter in the early part of her life and perhaps even delay in focusing on his cancer. However, in totality his focus helped him channelize his intensity and achieve extraordinary outcomes that might otherwise not have been possible.
- Resilience. Jobs is an amazing story of resilience and bouncing back from adversity. Jobs was kicked out of Apple, a company that he founded with a lot of passion, at the age of 30. For most people that would have been a knock out blow. However, Jobs was able to pick himself up and keep going. He faced more failures notably at NeXT Computers, but he persevered. In a remarkable reversal of fortune, he came back to Apple and led it to unprecedented glory. This resilience is visible also in his battle with cancer. He did lose his 3rd battle with cancer, but he came back from his first two battles and each time led Apple to major product breakthroughs. Jobs life story is great example of ‘never giving up’ and that if you persevere you can achieve a better future whatever might be the challenges in your present.
- Connecting the dots. Jobs impact grew exponentially over the course of his career. This was because of his ability to ‘connect the dots’ across his many life experiences and to learn from his mistakes. Jobs was a rebel in his youth – experimenting with drugs, dropping out of college but learning calligraphy in the process, and then a self-exploration trip to India. This was not a standard recipe for greatness in the business world. However, Jobs was able to connect these experiences into a unique success formula. Jobs also had more than his share of failures – getting kicked out of Apple, struggles to build a successful business at NeXT, the misplaced focus at Pixar on hardware. Again, Jobs was able to learn and grow from these failures. This comes out clearly as you compare his two stints at Apple. His Act 1 at Apple was successful but patchy. His contribution in setting up the company was secondary to that of Steve Wozniak, the technical genius who created the personal computer. Moreover, the negative aspects of his personality began to emerge and over shadow his contributions resulting in his unceremonious ouster from the company in 1985. His Act 2 back at Apple was however an unbelievable success where he brought revolutionary thought leadership and creativity to Apple. The series of industry shaping products he created – iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad – were unprecedented, and Apple became the most valuable company in the world. Jobs story illustrates the power of the learning curve. Jobs might not have started out as a technical genius, but he was able to evolve into a creative giant by ‘connecting the dots’ in his life. He didn’t invent many things outright, but he was a master at putting together ideas, art and technology in ways that invented the future. Jobs life story is a great lesson in the value of having varied life experiences. Moreover, it brings out that if we look within and reflect deeply on our experiences and intuitions, we will find answers to our most difficult questions.
- Nobody is perfect. Jobs was a complex person with many contradictions and imperfections. I found his interpersonal style to be particularly disappointing. He was brutal with his colleagues, bullying them and publicly humiliating them. He was manipulative, not taking no for an answer. He seemed to take credit for ideas that often came from others. He also seemed to lack integrity and consistency in some of his dealings. Most sad for me was that he seemed to lack loyalty and was mean and ungrateful to some of his close friends. Yet despite these failings, most colleagues loved working with him and he off course achieved phenomenal results. There are 3 important lessons from this : a) Nobody is perfect even a great and highly acclaimed genius like Jobs; b) We should not focus too much on any individual’s imperfections but look at the whole; c) We should not be too judgmental on what works and what does not – Jobs style was not ‘copybook’ but achieved tremendous results.
- Different paths are possible. Jobs life and work has a great contrast with another genius and phenomenal business leader, Bill Gates, who interestingly was also born in 1955 (the same year as Jobs). Two individuals and their life and work philosophies could not be more contrasting. Jobs was the eternal rebel; temperamental and charismatic. Gates is more the establishment types, more balanced and orthodox in his approach. The two adopted very different philosophies to technology and product development. Jobs had a strong belief in end-to-end integration and ‘closed’ systems. While Gates has been one of the strongest votaries of ‘open architecture’ approach. Despite their different personalities and approaches, both created tremendously successful companies and are amongst the most admired role models of our times. Jobs and Gates intersecting life stories prove that there is no one path to success. Different paths are possible and can be equally successful, both at work and in life. Therefore, we should choose our own path based on our strengths and situation.
It has been both an emotional and intellectual experience reading Isaacson’s biography and learning more about Steve Jobs. Jobs had a fascinating life and there is so much to learn from it. His life achievements are so tremendous that he almost seems like a ‘super man’ who was transported from an alien planet to earth for a period of time!! I am not sure if Jobs as a leader can be replicated in entirety or if that’s even a desirable thing to do. However, there are certainly many lessons from his incredible life that all of us could learn and take inspiration from. Even if we could imbibe and consistently live a few of these lessons, they would help us progress onwards on the path of realizing our full potential.
I want to end this note with one of Jobs favorite comments that he used in his famous Stamford commencement address – “stay hungry, stay foolish”. This in many ways sums up his life philosophy and is a great message to take away!!
Thank you!
