Ideas & Debate

Lessons next great innovator should learn from Steve Jobs

steve jobs

An iPad displays a picture of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at an outlet in Hangzhou, China, last year. The Apple chief, who died in October, left behind popular innovations and a legacy that aspiring innovators could emulate. Photo/Xinhua

“Three apples touched the World in a most remarkable way. Eve ate the first apple in the Garden of Eden. The second one hit Isaac Newton when he was resting one sunny afternoon. The third came to us incomplete; Steve Jobs version 1.0 had a piece of it.”

That’s how one of the bloggers chose to remember Steve Jobs when he died on October 5 last year.

Born Stephen Paul “Steve” Jobs, in 1955, he was an inventor and entrepreneur. He was co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

He also founded Pixar Animation Studios before becoming one of the largest individual shareholders and member of board of directors of the Walt Disney Company.

As the Apple CEO, he revolutionised the tech market with his i-inventions — the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

To many, he ranks as one of the greatest CEOs who ever lived and correctly so. His death created a vacuum so huge that many pundits were quick to argue that there would never be another Jobs.

But I beg to disagree. The world is a system ran on the Japanese Kaizen model –it becomes continuously better and better personalities always emerge.

It is a world of successive succession. As the wise adage goes: “You are not successful until your successor succeeds.”

I submit, therefore, not only will the world breed a new Jobs, but I dare say, it could produce a better version — in tech mumbo jumbo Steve Jobs Version 2.0 – and it could be you!

So what does it take to make a Steve Jobs Version 2.0? I hereby offer guidelines based on Steve Jobs version 1.0 mantra of life and leadership:

Dare be unreasonable

George Bernard Shaw quipped, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the World. The unreasonable man attempts to adapt the World to him. All progress, therefore, depends on the unreasonable man”.

Similarly, Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result every time.

Steve Jobs version 1.0 was the quintessential unreasonable genius.

Back in the 1970s, when no one seemed to see the commercial viability of computers, Steve Jobs version 1.0 had the vision to prove the world wrong, which he did.

Jobs was the typical rule breaker — doing things, not as they had always been done, but as he thought they should actually be done.

When he believed he was right, regardless of what the masses said, Steve Jobs 1.0 constituted a majority of one!

His attention to detail, his obsession with design; his hunger for pragmatism and his unreasonable desire to have the three fulfilled simultaneously meant that Steve Jobs 1.0 rarely compromised where most mortals would easily do.

He didn’t care about competition, and wherever he went, his unreasonableness made sure he changed the rules of the game and took those fields to a higher paradigm.

Steve Jobs 2.0 has to leave his options open and know that personality, not expertise, is what breeds success.

Be part of the solution

Steve Jobs 1.0 was regarded as a master at persuasion and selling skills.

Many base the success of Apple to his keynote speeches he delivered during product launches, which many referred to as the iTalks.

But what made Jobs seem such a consummate persuader?

The secret was simple, Jobs never sold his iProducts; instead he focused on selling his iSolutions.

He did not stress that you need an iPhone (product). He stressed that you needed to communicate easier (solution) with a phone that had larger screen without a permanent keyboard (yet still compact).

Steve Jobs version 2.0 has to be extra solution oriented. He or she should know that if you are not part of the solution, you definitely are part of the problem.

He or she should always think; how can I make the lives of people easier, more convenient, more fulfilling?

Work with people

People make the organisation. Building the capacity of the organisation or the company starts with building the capacity of people in that organisation.

Isaac Newton said: “If I have seen further, it is only because I have been standing on the shoulders of giants.”

The same applies to great leaders. If Steve Jobs version 1.0 seemed successful, it’s only because he had a great team working with him at Apple, Pixar or at Walt Disney.

As a leader, you need your people to carry you and your vision.

For your people to carry you, they have to have the capacity and the willingness to carry you.

A weak organisation (read people) cannot carry you; even if it wanted to. A dissatisfied organisation will not carry you even if it can. As a leader, a strong and satisfied organisation propels you.

In the end what Jobs version 1.0 taught us is that as leaders we are only as good as our followers allow us to be. So we need to invest in our followers to create Steve Jobs version 2.0 within ourselves.

To get cash, you must first refuse it

In a world known for corporate greed, Steve Jobs version 1.0 had a salary of only $1 a year as the CEO of Apple.

Jobs quipped that the $1 per annum he was paid by Apple was based on attending one AGM meeting for 50 cents while the other 50 cents was based on his performance.

You can tell that from the outlook that here was a man who served from his heart and not out of passion for material gain.

Ironically, thanks to his shares in the companies he had interests in (Apple and Walt Disney), Forbes Magazine estimated his net wealth at $8.3 billion in 2010, making him the 42nd wealthiest American.

Steve Jobs version 2.0 has to assume a similar stance in life — to focus on results and not money.

Live every day as if it’s your last

During his famous keynote address to the Stanford University graduating class of 2005, Steve Jobs version 1.0 said: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

He had been diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and had been given only a few months to live.

Steve Jobs version 1.0 defied all odds and was with us all the way until 2011.

The following words were also attributed to him, “We all die....the goal is not to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.”

In summary, seek the perfection of the work of your hands, and the world will be quick to reward you for your efforts.

Sissey is the head of secretariat and administration at Insurance Institute of Kenya. He lectures at the College of Insurance. Twitter: @marvinsissey