Dispelling Some Misconceptions About Steve Jobs
Different biographies give you different images of Jobs. He may not be the egomaniac you think he is.
At the moment, I’m reading “Becoming Steve Jobs” by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. It is excellent, and quite different to Walter Isaacson’s more famous biography. “Becoming Steve Jobs” (BSJ) is shorter, and focuses specifically on how Jobs evolved between the start and end of his career. Isaacson’s biography is more encyclopaedic. The books are most different in how they portray Jobs, with BSJ giving a more nuanced, human, believable version of Jobs.
I read Isaacson’s biography last year, and recommended it to friends as one of my Top 5. It was supremely enjoyable and interesting. Reading BSJ has made me less enamoured of Isaacson’s biography though - I feel like Isaacson gave me an incorrect understanding of Jobs.
Isaacson’s biography was published in 2011 and BSJ was published in 2015. Some quotes on the back of BSJ make a point of the differences between the two books.
“Fantastic… I hope that it will be recognized as the definitive history,” Ed Catmull, Pixar Co-Founder
And more bluntly,
“For my money, a better book about Jobs than Walter Isaacson’s biography”, New Yorker
The quote from Ed Catmull hints at something important: BSJ makes Jobs seem a lot more likeable! BSJ argues that Jobs was often quite warm and thoughtful, despite his sometimes harsh manner. Isaacson’s biography left me with the impression that Jobs was incredibly odd and lacked human warmth, but inspiring.
“I had gotten close enough to Steve to see beyond his harshness and the occasional outright rudeness to the idealist within. Sometimes it was hard to convey this idealism to others, given Steve’s intensity and unpredictable sharp elbows.” pg 327, BSJ
Some thoughts from BSJ below.
Jobs was not an obvious choice for Apple CEO in 1997.
How did he spend so much time on Product Development?
I don’t think he was an egomaniac.
Jobs was very good at a number of things.
He was smarter than you might think.
Jobs was not an obvious choice for Apple CEO in 1997.
By 1997, Jobs had the following record: He had founded Apple, created the Apple 2, created some commercial failures, been removed from Apple, started NeXT, acquired Pixar, failed to deliver products needed to make NeXT a successful business, became a billionaire via Pixar, and sold NeXT to Apple on the basis of NeXT’s software and team.
Jobs founded Apple Computer in 1976 at 21 years old, and he and Woz developed the Apple 2. Within 5 years, Apple was a billion-dollar company and Jobs was a wunderkind, though he had only been CEO of Apple for a few months.
From 1978 - 1984, Jobs worked on the Apple Lisa, Apple 3 and Macintosh. These computers had some revolutionary features, but were mostly commercial disappointments. By 1984, I think it was fair to call Jobs a pioneering technologist rather than a great businessman, and this is a key point made in BSJ; Young Jobs was not yet equipped with the traits needed to lead a large company successfully.
Jobs left Apple after a harsh power struggle in 1985, and he started NeXT Computer that year. He was 30 years old. Despite many proclamations by Jobs, NeXT basically failed at building a successful business. Its goal was to produce a revolutionary new computer for education and research. NeXT created some useful & inventive software, but it took 10 years to turn a profit and was a poor investment until Apple acquired the company for $429m in 1997. In fairness, most businesses are probably a poor investment until they are purchased.
Separately, Jobs had acquired Pixar in 1986. He funded Pixar through many challenges, and became a billionaire when Pixar IPOd in 1995. This was both an extraordinary investment and management feat on Jobs’ part, though he did not run Pixar day-to-day - that was Ed Catmull’s job.
Though his successes were extraordinary, Jobs was not an obvious choice for Apple CEO in 1997! His track record indicated little ability to lead a 10,000 person company, or to turn-around a corporation that was headed for the gutter. A safer bet might have been a more seasoned corporate executive, but Jobs’ predecessors had fit that profile and didn’t succeed. It’s hard to imagine it, but pre-iPhone, pre-iMac, pre-iPod, pre-iTunes Apple was a marginal computer company, and Jobs was a dubious choice for CEO.
In 1997, Apple lost $700m on $7b in revenue. By 2011, when Jobs died, Apple made $25b on $108b in revenue. Jobs succeeded in fixing the company’s finances, and then he transformed Apple. It’s an extraordinary feat, and hard to believe that it wasn’t pre-ordained given Jobs’ august reputation today.
How Was He So Involved in Product Development?
In the development of OS X, Jobs allegedly reviewed every single animation and visual element in the whole operating system. What time did Jobs spend on hiring, compensation structures, and high-level strategy? How would his calendar compare to other CEOs?
I’m making assumptions about what Jobs’ calendar looked like, but his behaviour seems more similar to a Warren Buffett or Michael Burry-like investor than the CEO of a large corporation. What do other CEOs spend their time on instead?
Why would Jobs & investors be similar? Perhaps it is because the investor’s trades and Apple’s product design determine the respective business’ success. Jobs spent his time focused on the key activities that differentiated Apple from other companies: Product Design (I think?). In a similar way, certain investors are differentiated based on their trades, not their accounting, advertising or office decor.
How did Apple’s Design processes evolve so that the company could continue to succeed after Jobs’ death?
EGOMANIAC
What does’ egomaniac’ imply about Jobs? What behaviors would I expect of him if I believed he was an egomaniac?
I’d expect an egomaniac
To think they are always correct, and to refuse to listen to feedback from other people.
To crave attention, and to always direct focus onto themselves and what they have done or are doing.
To consume quite flashy goods, like fancy cars, furniture, food etc.
To spend much time hobnobbing with celebrities, and seeking recognition and status.
To place their personal success and brand above whatever institutions they worked with.
To constantly expect special treatment and exceptionas based on their name, role or title.
Jobs the Younger may have been an egomaniac, but I don’t think Jobs the Elder was an egomaniac. I am not sure what exactly an egomaniac is.
Ancillary Skills
Jobs was an excellent negotiator and salesman. George Lucas initially wanted ‘10s of millions’ for Pixar. Jobs bought it for $5m. There’s another story about getting an investment from Canon, where Jobs walked in and made 5-6 completely unworkable demands. Then he walked out of the room, leaving the other guys stewing. Then he walked back in, they refused all his demands, and in return he asked for what he actually wanted, and they agreed to it.
In BSJ, a colleague of Jobs says that he always knew exactly what he needed to get out of a transaction and where he and the other party stood before going into any meeting.
Also, Jobs could put on a performance. He could convincingly make demands that he knew were absurd. Few have this ability! Sometimes he just had a bad bargaining position though and his gifts couldn’t trump that. Bill Gates refused to build Microsoft software for NeXT Computers, and an important deal between IBM and NeXT fell through too.
Smart
Certain founders have a reputation as having enormous brainpower. These are founders that aced classes, skipped grades, built something extraordinary as a child, etc.
To me, Jobs did not have this reputation. I thought of him as a visionary, a hussler and an extraordinarily driven man, but not as someone who was cerebral and nerdy. His intelligence may have been overshadowed by that of Woz.
In 4th grade (10 years old), Jobs tested at the 10th grade level (15/16 years old). He skipped a year of school because of that test, and could have skipped two years. Multiple smart, top tier performers describe Jobs as having been extraordinarily smart.
Ed Catmull, Pixar co-founder & PhD in Computer Graphics: “The fact [Jobs] was so smart meant he figured out when things didn’t work at a very early stage.”
Other people he worked with described Jobs in similar terms, e.g. he would understand and extrapolate ideas before you could finish your explanation.
Jobs’ public profile post-1997 is design and product focused. His greatest hits are his talks introducing the iPhone and other Apple devices, and the Stanford commencement. These highlight his taste, drive and salesmanship rather than his intellect. I think it’s incomplete to think of Jobs without acknowledging his fearsome intelligence.
These are some interesting aspects of Steve Jobs that ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ made me consider. I read Walter Isaacson’s biography previously and though it excellent, but it left me with a much less human, and more egotistical image of Jobs. ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ makes him much more likeable. I suspect this is because the author(s) did like Jobs, and were friendly with him and able to relate to him.
Thanks to whydontyoulove.me for recommending BSJ. Thanks to Michael & Barry for conversations.