Why Steve Jobs Won

I just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson this week, and I've come to some interesting conclusions, the first of which is the topic of this post.

Not everyone gets a biography written about him/her. I, for instance, will likely float into obscurity after my death, even more so than the obscurity in which I now live. Isaacson has written biographies on Einstein, Kissinger, and Benjamin Franklin, people who won big in their life. Picking up the book, I questioned how Jobs fit into this category. Isaacson establishes the answer in the book, and it's a worthy story. The answer I wish to discuss now, however, is how did Jobs do it? How did he win big, change the world, and accomplish his lofty goals?

Steve Jobs won for one reason: a singular focus. He shut out everything that kept him from his goal. In an interview with the biographer before his death, Jobs said, "My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary. Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products. But the products, not the profits, were the motivation." The biographer succinctly put this into his own words: "his ego needs and personal drives led him to seek fulfillment by creating a legacy that would awe people."

And that is what he did. He created great products. He created and later saved and later reinvented Apple into one of the most successful companies in the world. How we listen to music, what we use our phones to do, and what we have decided those products should look like are all directly connected with Jobs' work. Apple's stock rose and fell based on mere rumors of his health. Steve Jobs wasn't successful in the industry; he was iconic. He gained this because of his intense and singular focus on this one goal.

Part of focus is clearing the clutter. Said Jobs, "Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do," he said. When he took Apple over again, he challenged the company to quit creating many mediocre products and instead create four revolutionary ones. Once a year, he held a retreat for his most valuable employees called "The Top 100." At it he asked for suggestions on what the company should be doing next. The whiteboard had a list of only ten on it, with all employees jockeying for their idea to stay on. When the final ten were decided on, Jobs slashed the bottom seven and said they could only do three. There may have been 25 great ideas, but Apple couldn't do 25 ideas masterfully, something Jobs knew very well. Instead, they cut all but a few essential priorities.

Jobs did this with employees as well. Accomplishing the goal was more important than maintaining feelings. Jobs only wanted "A" players on his team. If someone proved to be a "B" player, they were out, sentiments be damned. Anything less than perfection was berated by Jobs. Using what many who worked with him called his "reality distortion field," Jobs also demanded the impossible of his employees. He didn't let what "couldn't be done" distract him from his vision: if he wanted it, then he believed it was possible and his people simply weren't working hard enough to find it. More often than not, at the risk of being his next target, they found a way to get it done.

Jobs felt "that the world will be a better place with Apple in it," and he made that world a reality. With intolerance for failure and keen tunnel vision on the goal, he got exactly what he was chasing in his professional life.