What I Learned From Steve Jobs

I was never a fan of Steve Jobs. I didn't exactly subscribe to the Apple-mania and to this gadget-elitist thing. “Once you Mac, you can never go back” that’s what they say. Still, I’d turn my back on the thought that my tools ought to be more expensive in exchange for some flair and style. I just didn't get it.

And then Steve Jobs died. The best recipe for popularity is to just...die (Lol). I never gave him a second thought until he did, at least. Then came the stories of him being one of the greatest movers of 20^th century technology, and stories of him being temperamental (a gross understatement as it turns out) and uncompromising.

What intrigued me was his belief of not making use of market research, because “people don’t know what they want until you give it to them”. And I realized he made a fair point. More than once did I prove to myself that what I wanted is not always what I need.

He seemed to be someone who moved against the tides and found his way to the top in spite of. This, together with his controversial temper, drove me to read his biography.

Papa Ray gave me a copy of the e-book for our 5^th monthsary. We’re currently on our 13^th month, so yes, it took me more than half a year to finish it. First because I didn’t have a tablet at that time and could only read it on my laptop, and when I stare at the laptop I end up checking Facebook instead. Haha! Second, because it was gadawfully long. During my first few days of reading it I managed to reach a third of the book and then just got too busy to go on.

I finished it just this week and I am one inspired young woman. Heheh! :

I think it is part of his genius that he personally asked Walter Isaacson to write his biography when he was diagnosed of cancer. I have his audio-book with Einstein and it was really, really good (pity I still haven’t finished it either, I couldn't help but doze off every fifteen minutes hahaha!). The depth of research is amazing, and I really like how he is able to give approximations on the core of a man’s character, that is able to consistently manifest in crucial points of his life.

His work with Jobs is all the more awesome, with Jobs being able to give him firsthand information, and Walter being able to freely interview all the people involved in an attempt to provide a balanced perspective of the various events in his life. It’s an incredibly comprehensive work and it made me feel like I've already known and understood Jobs, as complex as he is. And with that, Steve was able to achieve his goal.

I need not write a synopsis of his life and the book, it’s easy to Google that. But I’d like to share a couple of quotes that I found very memorable in the course of my reading:

“Deciding what NOT to do is as important as deciding what to do”

– the idea is FOCUS. Dear God where can we please buy focus? :p One of the stellar characteristics of Apple is being able to focus on ONE goal, as ONE team, and eliminate the things that do not matter. This allowed them to really focus on improving their product and making sure it had top notch quality. Same goes for us. Sometimes it’s tempting to take on everything and consider ALL (assumed) factors, in an effort to create a well-rounded decision, however sometimes it just distracts us from the main goal. Learning what NOT to do, and firmly standing to that decision, is as important as identifying the key items of a problem.

“Find a way to make the product DEFER to you… It takes a lot of hard work, to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions” 

– This is taken from Jony Ive, Job’s chief design person. The idea is that for you to create simplicity, you must CONQUER its complexity. :-D Beautiful isn't it? Sometimes we think the more complicated things get; the more intelligent we think we are. Intelligence is more than just understanding the complicated; it is also about conquering it to achieve what is simple. It gives us the power to cut 7 steps to 1 unified method, or maybe reduce a whole red tape process into a smooth and efficient flow. Or even as simple us the ability to reduce a confusing dilemma into merely a question of what is right and what is wrong.

“The right kind of building can do great things for a culture”

– Hello Philippines. Hello Manila.  I guess we have long been caught up with our own poverty that we find matters such as ‘culture’, too “bourgeouis” or too elitist.  However, I've always believed that food is for the body, as culture is for the soul.  I hope I live to find the day when I walk Makati, or QC, with Filipino brand-buildings being portrayed as high-class instead of “indigenous”.

“Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, random discussions” 

 – one of my favorite qualities of the Apple company, as I have learned, is that they don’t hold meetings like corporate companies do. They are not ‘compartmentalized’. Jobs hates Powerpoints. He likes DISCUSSIONS.

One of my favorite things about college was how you could just come up to a friend and then bounce several ideas off each other and before you know it you’re planning to build a company. I totally loved my org-executive meetings in college (S.M.E represent!) because it was a time when we’d just follow a skeletal agenda, then brainstorm and really have fun with where our ideas and plans could take us.

Those, for me, are the REAL discussions. A group of people in a spirited conversation with a common goal. Not sitting in a round table, in a contest on whose ego wins nor whose department gets the highest number of quality issues, nor who is able to pass the blame on who ever. There are times when I sit on a meeting and feel frustrated at how it’s more like a show because sometimes they’re all about superficiality.  These are the kinds of life-realities that you need to deal with and work around and sometimes before you know it you’re one of them. And that’s sad. And you have to remember to pull yourself again and remind yourself that you are not about appearances.

This is the point when I realized, how an organization structure really affects how a product turns out. Jobs was able to force his personality in Apple’s very DNA. He ensured that all his groups worked not as various departments, but as one team (albeit often controlled by only one). It’s a slogan that is very easy to say but hard to actually enforce. And in succeeding he was able to come up with a product that is tightly integrated: software-hardware-design-user experience. Amazing. And inspiring. Think of what you can do if only you could manage this in your own small teams.

“It’s just the way he’s wired “– This is always said about Jobs and his crazy personality. What I learned, with how Walter delivered it, is that this is NOT an excuse, rather merely a fact. It’s never justifiable to crush a man’s self esteem in front of everyone, nor to yell at someone who have worked so hard for long months only to be dissed by the CEO. However he does it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't  But in the many times that it DID work, Walter never really made me feel that being an ass was alright. Being an ass sometimes works, but karma works just the same. It did happen to Steve, in a sense.

 “I hate it when people call themselves entrepreneurs when what they’re really trying to do is launch a start up then sell or go public, so they can cash in and move on. They’re unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business”

I’m not exactly a business person, but what I know, is that a business thrives when you LOVE what you’re doing, and not when you just see it as a milking cow. I guess in today’s competitive world, it is no longer just about thriving, but also about surviving and being a step ahead and always taking the extra mile to add an extra value. 

 “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. We believe that its technology married with the humanities that guide us to the result that makes our heart sing” 

This moved me. He said this in the product launch of the Ipad. And somehow it was a culmination of what Apple has fought to be from day 1.  This puts them apart from everyone else. They are the ones who were really able to live up to their vision, and it isn't an easy feat. Again I always believe that it’s easy to cry slogans to show on advertisements or cork boards or brag about in meetings, but unless a systemic approach is made to really live up to that vision, everything is merely superficial

And this reminded me of what passion really is about.Passion is the tune of your heart singing :-)

I am tempted to buy an Apple product I just don't know what yet. Have I changed my mind about the arrogance of closed systems? Not exactly, though I do understand it better now. Will I subject myself to it? I doubt. So why do I want a piece of Apple?

Because at this point, to me they signify a turning point of technology as we know it. A lot of key features of our gadgets today that we've taken for granted are fruits of the many months of labor from those guys at Apple, in conceptualizing what the user may want in his phone/media player/tablet. More than being just a status symbol, their products are testaments to what people can do when they keep pushing themselves to the limit, and are able to integrate their different strengths into one direction.  

Amazing companies and products do not always win the congeniality game, but it is undeniable that that this group of people did set the bar and moved the technology age a step forward, with each brilliant innovation that they have made. :-) And obviously it works for a lot of people, they wouldn't be one of the worlds most profitable companies for nothing. So I'd rather not miss that. :-)