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 20th
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 5th
monthsary. We’re currently on our 13th 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. :-)
