Here's to the crazy ones, Five Lessons From one of the Greatest Personalities of our Time

On the 24th of February 1955, one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries was born. He revolutionized the technology space, made waves in the music industry, and left a mark in the movie industry. He embodied the finesse of an artist, the creativity of an inventor, and the intelligence of a businessman.?

This is the story of jobs; a man who turned a complex computer that was only used by scientists and big corporations, into a regular household appliance that could be operated by a ten-year-old. He started the company Pixar, one of the first animation studios that went on to make some of the highest-grossing animated movies of our time including toy story, Finding Nemo, and The life of a bug among others. He invented the iPod which changed the way people listened to their music. He invented iTunes and with it came a business model that saved the music industry at a time when it was struggling. He invented the iPhone, a cellular and internet-enabled device that put the entire world in one's pocket. Here are my four key lessons from the life of Steve Jobs.

1. Start with why. Back then, computers were so expensive and complex that they were often only used by governments and big corporations. Job’s saw himself as the embodiment of a counter-culture. His drive was to change the status quo and make computers simple and avoidable to the common folk as a way of empowerment against big corporations and the government. Apple made the computer user-friendly using the Graphical user interface in which case one could navigate it using clicks and icons rather than long lines of code.?

This is an extract from one of apple’s advertising campaigns;

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Jobs didn’t only inspire his customers, he inspired employees. He made them believe their work was changing the world. In the 1980s while Jobs was scouting for a CEO for Apple, he called John Sculley who was then a Pepsi executive, and told him this. “ Do you want to spend your whole life selling sugared water, or do you want to come to change the world?”

Simon Sinek, author of Start with why tells the story of two stonemasons. The first is asked whether he likes his job. With a dispirited countenance, he laments about how he had monotonously been building a wall. The second stone-mason is also asked whether he liked his job and with a beaming smile, he says; “Of course, I love my job, I'm building a cathedral”

2. Focus. Job’s 1997 comeback to Apple after previously being fired was marked by cutting off multiple product lines including printers, servers, and different versions of the macintosh in production. This was at a time when Apple was struggling and barely staying afloat. He decided to cut off less productive product lines to double down on what was most important. This increased Apple’s revenue while cutting its costs.

Jobs often said; “Deciding what not to do is just as important as deciding what to do”

3. The little things are just as important; Jobs was known for being a perfectionist. He diligently examined every single product down to the finest detail. He wanted to make all his products beautiful. He paid attention to the body of the macintosh, the smoothness of every curve, the color, and texture, the color of the iPod earphones, and the casing of the iPad.?

His conviction to design went as far as designing the packaging of his products, something that would be disposed of. He even went further to design the parts a user would likely never see. Jobs made sure even the inside of the product was beautiful. He made sure the circuit boards were beautifully designed.??

4. You can’t connect the dots looking forward; This is an extract from his 2008 commencement speech at Stanford University. By this, he meant that some decisions and actions will only make sense in retrospect. Sometimes you have to trust your intuition and follow that path while believing that someday the stars will align, and you will realize that it is the best decision you ever made.

Jobs made a bold decision of choosing the closed-end design philosophy where Apple-designed all its products–both hardware and software–to be integrated and tightly bound such that other brands and devices weren’t so compatible. They couldn’t be copied or altered. At the time it seemed like a bad idea compared to companies like Microsoft that were licensing its software to be used by everyone else. But because of this, Apple was one of the first companies to successfully pull off cloud computing. Because all their devices were integrated, they could all seamlessly connect to the cloud. An integrated system also gave Apple more control over the design of its products.

5. You have to ask for what you want. In Job’s early childhood days, one of his first entrepreneurial ventures was making a frequency counter. The parts he needed were then being manufactured by H.P so Jobs called Bill Hewlett, the CEO of H.P back then, and talked to him for a few minutes before allowing to give him the parts. In addition to that, he also gave him a summer job. Very few people at that age can muster the courage to call a CEO and let alone ask for what they want. There’s always the imposter syndrome or fear of rejection that stops people from asking.?

Asking for something doesn’t mean you’ll get it, but not asking most definitely means not getting it.

Ladies and gentlemen, Steve Jobs was a crazy one who dared to dream, he believed he could change the world and he did.