Since my last post, a requiem for Steve Jobs, I have read the amazing biography of Jobs by Isaacson. Unlike everything else in his life, Jobs ceded total control of te book to Isaacson. I don't think Jobs ever even got to read it. The resulting work is a compelling, human view of Jobs warts and all. Its a great read and gives you a good insiders view of the Valley and its players over the last 30 years. I highly recommend it.
There is no doubt that Jobs was an asswipe at times. That his ego was huge. That he was a maniac at times, ruthless to those he did not respect. But, I don't think that he could have got his vision produced any other way. He got more out of people than they thought they were capable of doing. He bullied entire industries to his focus.When he came back to Apple and introduced the iMac, still in CEO of Pixar he was a little more mellow. How much he influenced and changed is immense.
I know that many think he was the great Satan for his methods and the way he stymied competition and strapped everyone to his products and your feelings are entirely valid, however, He was the one guy out there that was focused on the customer experience as first priority. The rest were out to make money, Jobs was out to change the world. Money found him.
Some things I didn't know or didn't realize:
Bill Gates investment in Apple when Jobs came back helped keep Apple in business. The word was that Gates was protecting his very profitable Microsoft Office for the Mac business. Nope that wasn't it. Jobs found that MS had infringed on a number of patents, blatantly. He called Gates (Gates acknowledges this deal) and told him they could resolve this in a couple of ways. A lengthy court battle where Apple would eventually prevail or Gates could take a 500 Million dollar equity position in Apple and the infringement would get licensed. Gates agreed and received 500 Million in Preferred NON voting stock.
At Pixar and at Apple he was constantly taught the lesson tat you need to control the entire process production to consumption otherwise someone is going to upset the whole thing. Michael Eisner of Disney almost screwed up Pixar/Disney deal. Motorola-OSX, Adobe refused to port Premier for the Mac, which led to Apple making Final Cut and later refusing Flash. The record industry refused to do Apples FairPlay digital rights system, instead Sony, Universal, EMI and others splintered into several different incompatible systems. Jobs went to the artists. He showed them how they would get paid something instead of losing everything to piracy. He brought the whole thing together as a system player/digital hub/itunes/and the itunes store. 99¢ a song with digital rights. Gates was in awe that no one else had done anything similar ad in fact was even close.
Gorilla Glass was invented by Corning in the 90's but there was no market for it and they weren't producing any at all. Jobs found out about the product and ordered as much as they could produce in the next 7 months for the iPhone. Luckily Weeks, Cornings "Can Do" CEO saw the opportunity and got his best and brightest to figure out how to change gears and produce G.Glass that fast.
I guess this is what it boils down to: If we didn't do it Steve Jobs way, we probably would not have it today. And that applies to everything touching the computer segment and a lot out side of it. Did this stomp on competitive ideas. Sure. Did this stifle innovation. Ya but it poured gas on innovation along the lines of Jobs thinking.
His being put up for adoption certainly screwed him up. Just as his dropping acid, his Buddism his minimalists, his hippie college years, Bob Dillon, Joan Baez changed his life's direction.
Things I though Unique about Jobs
He micromanaged his passions. The ads right down to knowing when the agency had eliminated 3 frames out of an iPod ad. He stopped the roll out of the iPhone because he and Johnny Ives decided that the back of the iPhone was to elegant and took away from the display.
Jobs thought it had to be right from the start. No introduce it and fix it later. You only had one shot to get it right and that was the first.
He felt he was an artist. He was in tune with his materials. A great quote is the "Michelangelo was not just a great sculptor but he knew how to quarry stone"
I wish he were a nicer guy but I wonder if Michelangelo, Thomas Edison or Mr Vertically integrated himself George Eastman weren't a bit of an asshole as well.
OK, No more about Mr. Jobs, I promise (fingers crossed behind his back)
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