What Would Steve Jobs Do? How the Steve Jobs Way Can Inspire Anyone to Think Differently and Win by Peter Sander Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Peter Sander
underweight but otherwise appeared normal.
The rest is history. Apparently Steve knew his destiny, for he had authorized (and, some reports say, commissioned) journalist and former CNN CEO Walter Isaacson to do a 650-page biography. According to Isaacson, Jobs explained why he had authorized the work in a final interview shortly before his death. “I wanted my kids to know me,” said Jobs. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and understand why I did what I did.”
He probably knew his destiny in the following often-quoted passage from the 2005 Stanford commencement address:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—allexternal expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
If nothing else, Steve Jobs followed his heart.
As leaders, we will all be well served to follow Steve Jobs.
CHAPTER 3
MODEL
Democracies don’t make great products—you need a competent tyrant.
—Jean-Louis Gassée, former Apple VP,
Product Development
The Steve Jobs Leadership Model is above and beyond. The results make this clear. Its veneration and idolatry by the financial press, innovation specialists, tech gurus, and most of the consumer world make it abundantly clear.
So what’s the difference between it and the same-old same-old that seems to be practiced all across corporate America (or the world, for that matter)? What’s the special secret sauce that makes the Jobs model work, and work so much better than what so many have learned in business school, and what so many have learned on the job? How does “good” become “great”? How did Jobs lead 40,000 people to do the right thing, time after time, and be so happy about it and ready to do it again? Why is it that no other product-creating organization of 40,000 or more has been able to create and produce so much shareholder value?
Did Jobs put a dent in the traditional leadership model? If so, how?
A LL
L EADERS A RE T YRANTS
The questions just posed are what we, as students of Steve Jobs’s leadership, really need to get to. And the Jean-Louis Gassée quote cited at the beginning of the chapter goes a long way toward getting there. It goes along way toward defining what the Jobs leadership style is all about, why it works, and how it’s different.
Would the Apple “democracy” have succeeded without Jobs? Chances are, it would not have. We don’t really have to speculate on that; we saw it clearly in Apple’s dwindling fortunes, declining brand, and bland product offerings during his 11-year absence between 1985 and 1996.
And the “product”? That can be a small “p” (the product itself, the thing that comes in a box and is plugged into a wall by its purchaser), or it can be a large “P,” representing a line of products, or, for all intents and purposes, a business. Either way, the history of commerce is littered with products designed by democracies (“camels designed by committees”) that don’t work.
Now, let’s consider the second part of the quote.
I’ll blurt this out:
all leaders are tyrants
. Some are just more competent than others.
For some leaders, tyranny is a daily occurrence. For others, it’s more of a backup style, a fallback posture that is invoked when the going gets tough. But all leaders are tyrants. The difference is intent. The difference is really
why
they’re being tyrannical. Is it about money and power? Is it about controlling other people, staying on top, and taking all the credit? Or is it about achievement and accomplishment and drive to realize a vision? It makes a huge
The rest is history. Apparently Steve knew his destiny, for he had authorized (and, some reports say, commissioned) journalist and former CNN CEO Walter Isaacson to do a 650-page biography. According to Isaacson, Jobs explained why he had authorized the work in a final interview shortly before his death. “I wanted my kids to know me,” said Jobs. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and understand why I did what I did.”
He probably knew his destiny in the following often-quoted passage from the 2005 Stanford commencement address:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—allexternal expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
If nothing else, Steve Jobs followed his heart.
As leaders, we will all be well served to follow Steve Jobs.
CHAPTER 3
MODEL
Democracies don’t make great products—you need a competent tyrant.
—Jean-Louis Gassée, former Apple VP,
Product Development
The Steve Jobs Leadership Model is above and beyond. The results make this clear. Its veneration and idolatry by the financial press, innovation specialists, tech gurus, and most of the consumer world make it abundantly clear.
So what’s the difference between it and the same-old same-old that seems to be practiced all across corporate America (or the world, for that matter)? What’s the special secret sauce that makes the Jobs model work, and work so much better than what so many have learned in business school, and what so many have learned on the job? How does “good” become “great”? How did Jobs lead 40,000 people to do the right thing, time after time, and be so happy about it and ready to do it again? Why is it that no other product-creating organization of 40,000 or more has been able to create and produce so much shareholder value?
Did Jobs put a dent in the traditional leadership model? If so, how?
A LL
L EADERS A RE T YRANTS
The questions just posed are what we, as students of Steve Jobs’s leadership, really need to get to. And the Jean-Louis Gassée quote cited at the beginning of the chapter goes a long way toward getting there. It goes along way toward defining what the Jobs leadership style is all about, why it works, and how it’s different.
Would the Apple “democracy” have succeeded without Jobs? Chances are, it would not have. We don’t really have to speculate on that; we saw it clearly in Apple’s dwindling fortunes, declining brand, and bland product offerings during his 11-year absence between 1985 and 1996.
And the “product”? That can be a small “p” (the product itself, the thing that comes in a box and is plugged into a wall by its purchaser), or it can be a large “P,” representing a line of products, or, for all intents and purposes, a business. Either way, the history of commerce is littered with products designed by democracies (“camels designed by committees”) that don’t work.
Now, let’s consider the second part of the quote.
I’ll blurt this out:
all leaders are tyrants
. Some are just more competent than others.
For some leaders, tyranny is a daily occurrence. For others, it’s more of a backup style, a fallback posture that is invoked when the going gets tough. But all leaders are tyrants. The difference is intent. The difference is really
why
they’re being tyrannical. Is it about money and power? Is it about controlling other people, staying on top, and taking all the credit? Or is it about achievement and accomplishment and drive to realize a vision? It makes a huge
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