12 life lessons from Steve Jobs
Tips Motivation / / December 19, 2019
A lot of people talk and write about what they learned life lessons thanks to Steve Jobs and his work. But only a few can boast of having received these lessons "first-hand", working in Steve's team. One of these is the lucky Guy Kawasaki and it divides the received wisdom with the outside world.
experts clueless
Experts in their field - journalists, analysts, bankers, consultants and other gurus can not "do" as they "advise". They can say what is wrong with your product, but they can not do as good. They can tell you how to sell something, but can not sell it yourself. They can tell you how to create a great team and are themselves controlled only by its secretary. Listen to what the experts say, but do not always listen to them.
Customers can not say exactly what they need
Market research company Apple - is an oxymoron. Focus group Apple was the possibility of the right hemisphere of the brain talk to Steve left hemisphere. If you ask customers what they need, they will say: "It is better, faster and cheaper!" - that's it, no revolutionary changes, all the same. They can only describe their desires based on that used at the moment. The richest source for technology start-ups - is creating a product that you would like to use. What to do and Steve Wozniak.
Jump to the next level
Big wins happen when you go beyond the same. At that time, as the best company, manufacturers of inkjet printers introduced new fonts in different sizes for printing, Apple jumped to the next level and has introduced laser printing. Think about raisers ice, ice plants and cold storage companies - Ice 1.0, 2.0 and Ice Ice 3.0. Do you still collect the ice of the frozen pond in the winter with?
The most difficult challenges generate the best jobs
I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I or my work - crap. Say it in public. Competition with IBM and Microsoft were big challenge. Changing the world was a big challenge. I, Apple employees before me and after me - we all do a better job, because we have to carry out their work perfectly, in order to meet the new and more complex challenges.
Design matters
Steve lead up people to madness by their chicanery to design - some blacks were not black. Mere mortals think that black - it is black, and that the trash can - a wastebasket. Steve was also a perfectionist. Some people pay attention to the design, and many even feel it. Maybe design and does not always matter, but often it can be very important.
You can not go wrong with big graphics and big fonts
Look at Steve's slides - the font size of 60 points, one big screenshot or schedule. Look at the slides of other technical speakers, even those who have seen Steve in action - the font size of 8 points and no graphics. So many people say that Steve was the greatest representative of the products in the world, but why no copy his style?
Change your thinking - a sign of intelligence
When Apple released the first version of the iPhone, applications did not yet exist. Steve felt that the application - this is bad, because you never know what they would have done on your phone. The first applications for Safari appeared 6 months later, after Steve decided, or someone convinced him that it was good. Apple took a very long way in a very short time of the application for Safari to "there's an app for that» (there's an app for that).
"Value" is different from "price"
Woe to you if you decide that everything is based on the price. And an even greater woe to those who decided to compete based solely on price. Price - this is not all that matters. At least for some people more important and valuable. The value includes training, support, and inner joy from what you are using the best product ever made. It is safe to say that no one buys Apple products because of the low prices.
Good players hire great players
Steve was confident that the good players employ the same good players. I also pointed out that good players will often hire people more experienced than themselves. Of course, the average players can hire players on the lower level, in order to feel superior to them, etc. As a result, your company can happen "profanizma explosion" (as he called it, Steve).
This head shows
Steve Jobs could produce a demo pad, pod, phone and Mac are two or three times a year, and a million people watched how many leaders are calling on their leaders engineering departments to do a demo version product. Maybe this is done in order to show a team effort? Maybe. But it's more like what the leaders are not well understand what makes their company, in order to explain it. Is not that pathetic?
The present head of exports
Despite all prefektsionizm Steve, he could supply the goods market. Perhaps the product was not perfect, but he was always good for exports. The lesson is that Steve did this not for the sake of employment: it had a definite purpose - delivery and maintenance of world domination of existing markets or creating new ones. Apple is an engineering-oriented company, and not research-oriented. Who would you rather be: Apple or Xerox PARC?
Marketing boils down to delivering unique value
Think of a 2x2 matrix. The vertical axis shows how your product differs from the competition. The horizontal scale measures the value of your product. Bottom right: valuable, but not unique properties - you must compete using price. Top left: unique but not valuable - you own a market that does not yet exist. Bottom left: not a valuable and unique - you bozo. Top right: unique and valuable - that's where you have a profit, money and history. For example, the iPod has been a valuable and unique because it was the only way to legally, cheaply and easily download music from the six major record companies.
Bonus: Some things need to believe in order to see them
When you go to the next level, challenge or ignore the experts face to face big challenges, obsessed design and focus on the unique value - you have to convince people to believe in what you are doing to your efforts were success. People need to believe in the Macintosh, so that it became a reality. The same applies to the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Of course, not everyone will believe and that's fine. But the starting point for changing the world is to change a few minds. This is the great lesson of all that I learned from Steve.