A Legitimate Genius

We’ve all read the tributes to Steve Jobs. It’s assumed he resigned from Apple because his health is in fast decline. Perhaps that’s true. Healthy or not, Jobs is one of the few legitimate geniuses of the past 50 years. For me, a genius is a transformative thinker but also one whose ideas transform the world.

Jobs qualifies, in spades.

David Carr wrote a piece last week in The New York Times in which he said, “Mr. Jobs did not so much see around corners; he saw things in plain sight that others did not.” Bingo. Every hero I have in business has possessed the same characteristic. Warren Buffett, Peter Drucker. Even in our local market there are examples. The John Pellegrene-Bob Ulrich-Michael Francis trifecta at Target. Pat Fallon. Earl Bakken of Medtronic. Dick Schulze of Best Buy. Hubert Humphrey. Dwight Opperman. It’s actually a long list. They all saw things in plain sight—that others did not.

I “listen” to Steve Jobs, as I listen to those I admire and try to emulate. Jobs’ quotes are very revealing. They make you stop and pause, simple yet profoundly true statements, which his genius found a way of executing to perfection. Here are a few:

—“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

—“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then give it to them. It’s not the consumer’s job to know what they want. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

—“It’s not about pop culture and it’s not about fooling people and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want, and I think we have the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it too.”

—“Bill Gates would be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

—“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind Mac. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.”

—“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart, but the real issue for me is, are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because, if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will fall into place.”

—“Almost everything—all external 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.”

I love what he said to John Sculley, the Pepsi executive who ousted Jobs from his role at Apple many years ago: “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?”

Right on, Stevo, Mr. Jobs, sir. You said you wanted to put a ding in the universe and you did.

Comments

[Loose]

As always, thank you Ron. I appreciate that some of my thinking
resonates with your own.

[Ron in Alexandria, MN]

A nice homage L.C. - befitting of the man - thanks.