Many
people have explained what one
can learn from Steve Jobs. But
few, if any, of these people
have been inside the tent and
experienced first hand what it
was like to work with him. Guy
Kawasaki worked closely with
Steve and in the article below
shares his list of the top 12
lessons he learned from Steve
Jobs.
There is a
LOT of insight here that is
directly relevant to every owner
of an independent corporate
training business.
1.
Experts are clueless
Experts—journalists, analysts,
consultants, bankers, and gurus
can’t “do” so they “advise.”
They can tell you what is wrong
with your product, but they
cannot make a great one. They
can tell you how to sell
something, but they cannot sell
it themselves. They can tell you
how to create great teams, but
they only manage a secretary.
For example, the experts told us
that the two biggest
shortcomings of Macintosh in the
mid 1980s were the lack of a
daisy-wheel printer driver and
Lotus 1-2-3; another advice gem
from the experts was to buy
Compaq. Hear what experts say,
but don’t always listen to them.
2.
Customers often cannot tell you
what they need
“Apple market research” is an
oxymoron. The Apple focus group
was the right hemisphere of
Steve’s brain talking to the
left one. If you ask customers
what they want, they will tell
you, “Better, faster, and
cheaper”—that is, better
sameness, not revolutionary
change. They can describe their
desires only in terms of what
they are already using—around
the time of the introduction of
Macintosh, all that people said
they wanted was a better,
faster, and cheaper MS-DOS
machine. The richest vein for
tech startups is creating the
product that you want
to use—that’s what Steve and Woz
did.
3.
Jump to the next curve
Big wins happen when you go
beyond better sameness. The best
daisy-wheel printer companies
were introducing new fonts in
more sizes. Apple introduced the
next curve: laser printing.
Think of ice harvesters, ice
factories, and refrigerator
companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and
3.0. Are you still harvesting
ice during the winter from a
frozen pond?
