Nolan Bushnell: people first risked hiring of Steve Jobs at work

Nolan Bushnell is known to have spent many years searching for talented, eccentric hermits, hired them to their company and let their talents unfold. This was in part dictated by the activities of companies, which he led all these years. Bushnell is the founder of Atari and the first boss Steve Jobs, who has been involved in the creation of these classic video games like Pong. Later, Bushnell started many more companies over the years, including the pizza chain Chuck E. Cheese. Now the 71-year-old entrepreneur who is widely regarded as the father of the entire video game industry is a kind of elder in the field of technology and business innovation.

Long known as a man with an unusual way of thinking, he remains a legend in Silicon Valley and beyond, thanks to its unique view of the world, which is partly manifested in many people who worked for him in the time.

For this reason, Bushnell career can be seen as a storehouse of knowledge for all managers who have to work with creative and talented individuals.

Bushnell proudly admits that his best shots, which he hired all these years, would be "eccentric" in the opinion of many traditional companies, like IBM. At least take a Harold Lee, an engineer from the Atari, created a chip for Pong. Bushnell describes it as a bear, bearded, with long matted hair, move around on a Harley. "However, this did not prevent him to be a brilliant engineer", - he added.

In addition, Bushnell was famous for its employees hired under the most unusual circumstances. It could be a man approached to ask a question after his speech or the attentive waiter at the restaurant where he was dining.

"I believe that guided by a track record of the person at his job, it is a big mistake" - he says. "I think it would be better to start from the fact that a person is and what he has done than on what college he graduated from and if he visited it at all. On this basis, it would have to lay off a lot of talented creative people. "

"Surprisingly, in fact, one of the chief designers of the Atari 2600 was self-taught," - he adds. "I believe that they are often much better than their counterparts educated... they learn and comprehend all thanks to the passion. Because they love it. They are completely immersed in the technology, they live and dyshut it. "

Best known for his entire career sutrudnikom was, of course, Steve Jobs. He hired him on the developer's position paying $ 5 an hour, at a time when Steve was 19 and he was in search of his place in the world of technology.

In spite of the difficult nature of the future founder of Apple, Bushnell saw something in Jobs, and for this, he defined it in the night shift. Given that at Atari at that time was not the night shift and that's when Bushnell thought about it Essentially, this is an excellent example of the trust and the fact that companies must often go to meet their creative professionals.

"In my opinion, in many companies there is the problem of" reorganization "rather than" nedoorganizatsii "- said Bushnell. "Between employees who want to grow up and those who want to remain children, there is a big difference."

"It's amazing how many people in their 50 or 60 years, still want to be told what they should do" - surprised Bushnell. "Need adult workers, which you can specify the general goals of the company and to leave them alone. You should not worry about how and when they will work, as long as they fit into the time and show excellent results. "

Some of his thoughts regarding business leadership, he has collected in his book "The search for the new Steve Jobs," which was published last year. In this book, he argues that the management of creative workers, like grazing leads to cats - it is simply doomed to failure. Companies need to be more flexible to creative individuals, giving them the freedom and space, where they could take a deep breath.

This is exactly what was trying to do in Bushnell Atari and other companies, which he created after it. Today, many talented and creative people in a hurry to companies such as Google because they feel their PTFE coating to innovate, since they are doing it. "Even if they could realize their cool ideas to life at IBM or Hewlett-Packard under the same conditions, they would not go back because of the atmosphere."

"I think the problem with most companies is that they have a nose for the equivalent of Steve Jobs," - said Bushnell. "But often, it rejected the idea and said to him -" no. " In fact, in true innovation never have supporters. "

"If you have the idea of ​​a radical innovation, and you stood in the midst of the room said this, virtually no one will support you," - he says. "I've seen it many times. If you enter the room and ask how many people believe in innovation is likely to raise all hands. But when you show them a revolutionary innovation - no hands. It is indeed a mystery. "

"You also need hard-working and enthusiastic people," - said Bushnell. "The ideas of some people are very valuable. Sometimes a good idea is enough. "

"Many people know how ardent was Steve Jobs, entirely given to the case for which he was taken," - he says. "But few people realize how hard he worked, always remaining" on ", that may be, and undermined as a result of his health. He was a workaholic and one of the few Atari employees who spent the night on the job. He completely given to the work, and was immersed in the technology. "

Aspect of the need for constant action and a desire to work in many episodes opisyvatsya Bushnell's book. In one of them tells about a meeting of Bushnell and Steve Jobs, when the latter is being at Apple, consulted him on the inherent, serious themes. "How do you define what will be the next global trend?" - he asked his former boss. Bushnell said that it should present itself in the future and think about what new features computers, he would get.

At that Jobs told him that he had tried to do it, but people who think like him, very difficult to find. At the same time, he complained to him that Apple is waiting for revolutionary ideas only by him alone.

This was a great lesson for Bushnell, who realized that even a real Steve Jobs had to look for her, "the next Steve Jobs."

(via)