Lessons from Steve Jobs
After deep diving into “Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson” here are the two major lessons that I’ve learned:
-Great artists steal
The original ideas behind the MacOS were invented at Xerox
Xerox management wanted to invest $1 million dollars into Apple. As part of the deal, Steve Jobs made them agree to share all of their secret computer research. What they learned in 3 days at the center would become the foundation for their next operating system.
-Strive for simplicity
When designing a new product, Jobs had a clear goal of how the end design should feel. He always wanted to make things obvious to use and remove anything unnecessary. His goal was simplicity over clutter.
-Lead with a mission
Steve Jobs was an effective leader because he connected his company Apple to larger missions and movements
Hiring Sculley as CEO —Sculley was then President of Pepsi and had created the ultra-successful “Pepsi Challenge” campaign. Steve Jobs poked his pride by saying, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”
I'd add the following - Apple's marketing. Which has been misunderstood by many for a long time. What Steve Jobs said he did with Apple and what Apple actually did is two different things. It's the subject of my book actually (https://www.thebluntmethod.com/)
"Great artists steal" is actually one of the most powerful quotes I've read. My website, Instant Logo Design is up against several competitors with the same concept.
But what makes us different? I'd say, it's simpler and has an interface friendly, with unique and better logo generation.
It's not that we're going to literally steal ideas, but we'll definitely think of a way to make them better. This way, more people will have the opportunity to choose from great list of options available in the market in terms of availability, easy-to-use, and cost-efficiency.
I honestly don't like these quotes because they don't take context into account.
Especially when the words are vague; what is "mission"? Ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers. How do you define "simple"? Again, it might be a word with a simple definition but ask 10 people and you'll get different answers.
The only specific quote is "great artists steal". "Steal" = copy something as-is. But again, even that doesn't take context into consideration.
Taking what one person did and creating "principles" out of it is never a good idea. That's one person, one context. Heck, it's even one time in history...principles change though time.