I’ve just finished reading Steve Jobs the Excusive Biography by Walter Issacson. It is a remarkably ‘good read’ – a real page turner. I recommend it unreservedly. Indeed, I think it is one of those books that anyone in the tech sector should be obliged to study. What we in TechMarketView refer to as a ‘Must Read’.
As almost every one of our now 15,000 HotViews readers must know by now, I am an Apple groupie. Apple has been an integral part of my life – personal and business – for nearly 30 years. I fell for Lisa in 1983 and my Apple love affair has continued, through some rocky patches, ever since. Without Apple, Richard Holway Ltd could not have prospered as its DTP systems were at the heart of everything we did.
Until now, I have been unable (or unwilling) to separate my admiration for Apple from my admiration for Steve Jobs. But, after reading Issacson’s book, I find it impossible to ‘love’ Jobs – the man. I just cannot condone the rudeness, crudity of language, the selfishness, the delusion, cruelty, the lack of any social graces that Jobs exhibited with family, friends and business acquaintances.
I never thought I would ever write these words but I actually finished the book with admiration for Bill Gates. In all his comments about Jobs, Gates displays ‘grace’ - even though Jobs never reciprocated. Jobs said , right to the end, that that Microsoft had ‘no style’, stole the ideas of others and, indeed, had “become mostly irrelevant” . “Nothing will change as long as Ballmer is running it”.
The other ‘good guys’ in the story are clearly Steve Wozniak, Jony Ive and Mike Markkula.
But, I’m the lucky one. I didn’t have to put up with the bad side of Jobs. I just got to enjoy the products that were produced. Thoughout the book, it is Jobs’ attention to detail that makes the difference. He clearly loved, and had a deep understanding of, his products – something I find very rarely in other executives.
Jobs said, over and over again, that you should concentrate on a few things and do them ‘insanely well’. Focus, Focus, Focus. Killing products is vitally important too. I’ve often used the term “If you want to be reborn, first you have to die”. Jobs quotes Dylan “if you are not busy being born, you’re busy dying”. Jobs believed that great companies, like great artists, had to continue innovate which often means killing what you did in the past. How many companies do I know that fail that test?
Jobs also surrounded himself with ‘A players’. “A Players like to work only with other A players, which means you can’t indulge B players.If you do “soon you will even have some C players”. I’d like to think that is a mantra we have at TechMarketView too!
What next? Well, the first thing the book shows is that Jobs wasn’t really as vital to Apple as one might have believed. Indeed Jony Ive (and many, many others) vents his frustration at how Jobs took credit for the many things that Ive (and others) had developed. I have long said that Apple has a great team – I now think that even more so. If Tim Cook can keep that team together, I can’t see why Apple should miss a beat.
The book also hints that Apple’s next really big launch will be around the TV. That would be really exciting as the TV really is in need of updating. A TV specially designed for the iCloud, ridding our living rooms of DVD players and myriad remotes, is quite exciting. It dwafts the PC, smartphone and music player markets too.
So, thankyou Steve for all the wondrous gifts you gave us. You were undoubtedly a genius. But you clearly had many serious physiological flaws too. Maybe that’s the price one has to pay for being a genius? But, I tell you, it was a huge price that I suspect few would have wished to pay.
But, read the book. Make up your own mind. And I’d welcome your views…