A lot of people have said a lot of great things about Steve Jobs. And for good reason: he built the world's second-most valuable company, with billions in profits and products that have improved every aspect of our lives. But Steve didn't get there by being a soft, fluffy, Kumbaya-type leader. I know -- I negotiated with him and believe me, he was absolutely relentless. He got there by living and breathing some fundamental, universal business truths. So in Steve's honour and in his memory, here are five of the cold, hard business lessons that we can all learn him.
Never Lose Sight of the Value of a Dollar
As successful as he was, Steve never lost sight of the value of a dollar. I learned this first-hand when I was running The Learning Company, which at that time was the global leader in educational software. Steve wanted to launch Macs in schools using our software. Apple only had a small share of the market and it cost us over $50 million to develop the software he wanted. There was no way we would create the software on our own dime.
We thought we could share that cost with Apple, since Apple would benefit from having our titles. But did Steve budge? Not a chance. He stubbornly refused to give me a cent and insulted me for daring to ask for his money. He was so adamant about watching his company's cash that he kept yelling profanities, even in the parking lot as I was getting into my car to leave. Money, after all, is the result of hours of painstakingly difficult effort. Giving it away should never be easy -- and for Steve, it never was. (That being said, I have always said that Apple should pay dividends -- but that's for another day.)
Work Hard
It's easy to say, but so few people really know how to work hard. For Steve, there was no substitute for hard work. He took his business seriously, because to him, Apple was everything. Stories abound of how Steve worked all hours when necessary -- weekends, evenings, you name it. That's because Steve knew that life isn't easy, and that to be successful, you need a lot more than a good idea. You need to make big sacrifices, avoid distractions, and be as ruthless as necessary.
Steve made sure that others worked hard, too. Even after engineers thought a product was ready to ship, Steve was known for spending countless hours agonizing over every detail. He would send his staff back to the drawing board over and over again, as many times as it took, until everything was perfect. Do you think his staff always appreciated his thoroughness? Of course not. But Steve knew that sometimes, great leadership is about pushing people to work harder than they knew they could.
Business Is Not a Popularity Contest
Steve Jobs had his critics. Some saw him as an egomaniac, and others, as a control freak. He would remember who on his team added value and who didn't. And he never apologized for his relentless, visionary drive -- because he understood that business is about making money, not making friends. Like every CEO should, Steve kept a laser-like focus on creating value for his shareholders.
Don't Wait to Acknowledge Failure
I have met many entrepreneurs who have the passion and even the work ethic to succeed -- but who are so obsessed with an idea that they don't see its obvious flaws. Think about that. If you can't even acknowledge your failures, how can you cut the rope and move on?
Steve never had this problem. When a product or an idea failed, he wouldn't obsess over it -- he would calmly take it behind the barn and quickly put it out of its misery. Anyone remember the Newton? How about the Apple Pippin? How about the QuickTake? With these and many other barely-remembered flops, Steve understood the importance of acknowledging a failure and quickly moving on.
Listen to the Market
Business is fundamentally about creating things that people want. But to do that, you have to know your customers inside and out. Do they want simplicity? Lower pricing? A better experience? More convenience? The answer is different for every business, but every business has to know the right answer for itself.
In the tech world, no company knew their customers as well as Apple under Steve's leadership. Steve and his team knew that a lot of people wanted their digital experiences to be easier, friendlier, simpler, and less intimidating. That's why they had the discipline to say no to thousands of perfectly good ideas, and instead to build products with fewer buttons, less complexity -- and much higher profit margins.
Final Thoughts
One thing I've always loved about money is that it's one of the only things in life that's black and white: you either make it or you lose it. Steve Jobs didn't just make it -- he created hundreds of billions of dollars in value for his investors, and even more for Apple's resellers, suppliers, developers and employees. As we remember Steve, let's be sure to learn the lessons of his entrepreneurial legacy.
Kevin O'Leary is a repeat entrepreneur, chairman of O'Leary Funds, and the bestselling author of Cold Hard Truth.
He appears on ABC's Shark Tank, CBC's Dragons' Den and CBC's Lang & O'Leary Exchange.
You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@kevinolearytv), on Facebook (facebook.com/kevinolearytv) or at www.Kevin-OLeary.com.
Follow Kevin O'Leary on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevinolearytv
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
I greatly admire Mr. Jobs and enjoy the fruits of his (and his remarkable engineers) labours.
But, the saddest piece for me about Steve Jobs was something I read recently.
"Mr. Jobs’s biographer, Mr. Isaacson, whose book will be published in two weeks, asked him why so private a man had consented to the questions of someone writing a book. “I wanted my kids to know me,” Mr. Jobs replied, Mr. Isaacson wrote Thursday in an essay on Time.com. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”
You forgot to mention balance, Mr. O' Leary.
I believe one's business and one's personal life must be in balance...if not, you risk some problems....such as you're children might only fully understand you via a third party - in this case a biography.
Both men singularly achieved remarkable things. But they did it, some might say, at the expense of "the rest of their lives." Schulz took one five-week vacation during his entire life. He all but died at the drawing-board. Steve Jobs did the same: Apple (Computer) _was_ his life, and he died less than two months after finally admitting to his Board of Directors that he was physically done-for.
Both men were also skilled at wrapping their lives in a carefully architected and scrupulously maintained public persona. For Schulz, it was all wisteria and warm puppies. For Jobs, it was black jeans and black shirts and singularly accepting credit for everything that thousands of hard-working engineers ever accomplished. To a certain extent, of course, that's what a good CEO (in both cases) is supposed to do. It's what "your public" wants: the success story that everyone wants to project themselves into and thus to live vicariously. The very-huge and very-public outpouring of grief at both men's deaths is a testimony to that effect. The grief was real, and the honor was unquestionably deserved, but the _effect_ was there also: stage-work and star-dust.
No one can imitate Steve Jobs, and no one else should: "that was Steve's schtick, now go make your own." When you get to the board-room, leave it outside.
While Steve of course wanted to be successful, and fought for every penny, he was more fixated on creating a better experience for his customers, improving on a product even though the "other guys" were 10x bigger. He even may have failed with that approach. Look at Beta video. Superior but lost out to VHS.
I wonder if he came onto Dragon's Den circa 1976 and as a young upstart facing the much bigger IBM competition, told you that his main concern was taking the time to make a better consumer computer and not allow third parties to manufacture his machines, as IBM did...keeping control even if this delayed the time an investor like you would be getting any payback. Someone who talked about how his product looked and felt not how fast and cheaply he could manufacture it. Someone with no market share who said "trust me" the money will come eventually.
You would laugh him off the show. And if not I shudder to think of you buying out a controlling share back then and what Apple would look like today because of that. Well, it wouldn't exist I suspect.
While I agree that he wanted to create a better experience, he certainly didn't do it for his customers. He did it for himself. To make money and prove that his vision could be successful at the expense of others - including his family. That's narcissism.
I just had an issue with iTunes. My account was disabled and there is a bug in the software that isn't allowing me to make purchases on my computer even after my account was "enabled".
I was told I am sh*t out of luck unless I buy new system software.
Not the customer service experience I was expecting, and certainly not one from a company who is "all about the customer".
The worst you could say is that he was more focused on besting IBM as a personal challenge, along with Wozniak, because he foresaw that the average person would use a computer if all the DOS and other geek work was done for them behind the screen and the computer could be used for things other than traditional business purposes. That he was motivated more by this challenge than the general notion of helping the planet.
But the byproduct of that was the same.
I'm sorry that you have had a bad experience with Apple service. But maybe you DO need to upgrade your system software. That happens no matter what kind of computer you have. It is maddening to all of us. But sometimes you just have to upgrade in order to use the latest products. At least it is just the system software and not the whole machine.
"But to do that, you have to you're your customers inside and out"
What does that sentence mean, Kevin? It's taken from the "Listen to the Market" paragraph.
Though with a little thought on how educational software might be incorporated, if only on a breakeven basis. The world might have discovered whole new extra colours.
Personally, I prefer to work less, enjoy more - and live longer.
You stress that "Steve kept a laser-like focus on creating value for his shareholders." I would rather believe that faced with his own mortality, Steve Jobs knew that his creations would be his most lasting legacy, and that his relentless pursuit of perfection - his 'top line' as Jobs put it himself, took care of the 'bottom line' of Apple's shareholders.
The 'creating value for shareholders' mantra is an empty one, in the face of death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csa459eSZr8
It's your innovative, lasting contribution to mankind that matters.