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The work of Steve Jobs
"The trouble with Steve Jobs" This is the title of one of the many newspaper articles dedicated to the difficult character of Steve (from Fortune magazine).
When Stanford University management professor Robert Sutton was asked to comment on this title, the author of the bestseller The No Asshole Rule said :" As soon as people heard that I had written a book about assholes, they started coming to me and telling the story of Steve Jobs.
People in Silicon Valley are scared to hell of Jobs.
He drove people out of themselves, he brought them to screaming and crying”"
Steve earned this reputation from his very first years at Apple.
Already in 1981, Macintosh project manager Jeff Raskin wrote a memo to Apple President Mike Scott complaining about Steve, calling him an obnoxious child who seemed to have an interest in the project developed by Raskin.
This memo stated:
1. Jobs regularly skips meetings;
2. He acts without thinking about his actions in advance;
3. He is indifferent at critical moments;
4. Jobs often acts based solely on his personal biases;
5. Trying to be a master, he makes absurd and wasteful decisions;
6. He does not listen and constantly interrupts others;
7. He does not keep his promises and does not fulfill his obligations;
8. He makes his own decisions, I do not consult with my superiors;
9. Overly optimistic in judgments;
10.
Jobs is constantly irresponsible and inattentive.
There were several cases when Steve fired employees in a fit of anger for the most petty reasons.
The most famous (and probably exaggerated) examples of this are the dismissal of an elevator employee on the Apple campus and the dismissal of an employee for bringing Jobs the wrong brand of mineral water; Steve once called a promising employee a virgin (this example is described in the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley").
Steve's infamous arrogant character has repeatedly ruined important business relationships.
He fired Ruskin when he found out about the memo written by him to the management.
He made Pixar co founder Alvi Ray Smith leave the company after their serious quarrel: Alvi constantly ridiculed the company NeXT, and Steve, in response, ridiculed Alvi's southwestern accent.
He tore up the contract with IBM, which was vital for the future of NeXT, only because he did not want to sign a document with a volume of more than ten pages.
Fear and hatred in Cupertino: conspiracy and secrecy at Apple.
Apple employees are well aware of the very ambiguous reputation of their boss.
In a blog about Silicon Valley gossip and news, Valleywag, one former Apple employee wrote: "No one says hello to him.
The lower ranks are generally afraid of him.
I remember he was walking down the street once, and the crowd just parted to give him a way."
Another employee wrote on the same blog: "The paranoia of the company's employees is directly proportional to their proximity to One Infinite Loop” (Jobs' office).
Employees are always on the alert.
They know that some mistakes will not be forgiven: "If you asked your employees:" Can I send an email, or send this report?", people would answer: "Do whatever you want, this is your last day at Apple."
They are always careful when talking to D. S. - Friends of Steve (F. O. S.-Friends of Steve), because these people are very familiar with him.
Well, no one had the right to even come close to Steve's shrine – the blackboard in his office, even members of the top management.
However, most of all, Apple employees are in awe of the cult of secrecy of the company, which is the brainchild of Steve.
At the time of NeXT, he practiced the introduction of rules of silence, a kind of omerta, as in the Sicilian mafia; employees entering any position did not see the machine with which they would have to work until the very last moment.
This was called the term “bridge of faith " – faith in objective uncertainty.
When Steve returned to Apple, the company constantly "fed" the press and business partners with information about upcoming projects.
This went on for a long time, until the very minute when he took over the reins of power.
Above his desk, he hung a poster from the Second World War with the inscription:" if you drop too much, you will sink the ships "("Loose lips might sink ships").
By doing this, he made it clear to everyone that anyone who talks for the press will be expelled from the company.
Apple is not ashamed of such an extraordinary approach.
The company's top manager John Rubinstein once said: "We have cells, just like terrorist organizations!
Everyone knows only what they are supposed to know, no more"; after all, secrecy is an integral part of Apple's marketing strategy.
Rumors that begin to spread even a few months before the release of the product become excellent free advertising, especially since these days such rumors immediately become the property of the media.
Any measures are taken to ensure that employees do not know too much.
Software engineers work behind big boxes, and hardware engineers never see the software on the machines they create.
Only less than a dozen people had seen the iPhone prototype before Steve presented it to the public at Macworld in 2007; considering how many people were involved in its creation, this is an amazing achievement!
In a recently published article in the Times newspaper, they wrote that " management often throws misinformation into one of the departments in order to then trace the leak.
Employees working on particularly important projects go through many levels of security.
When they are at their workplace, video surveillance is conducted for them, and they are obliged to cover the devices with black floorings or turn on a red warning signal when these floorings are removed."
There are rumors that on the Apple campus, Steve sometimes takes the iPhone of the first employee he sees, and if the device is not password protected, this employee is subject to dismissal.
Such extreme measures are often (and, of course, anonymously) described by company employees as unnecessary and irritable.
Especially the passions raged when one of the Apple contractors in China lost a prototype iPhone, and, subsequently, unable to bear the guilt, committed suicide...
Nevertheless, most Apple employees understand the value and need for privacy.
No one complains about the incredible hype that the company causes in the media.
Who is not shy about criticizing an old friend, says “ " It's good that Apple has tightened control.
After all, this fuels interest — after all, a new product must be new!”
Contradictory nature
Of course, Apple would not have achieved such heights if Steve Jobs had only bad character traits.
He is a very complex person.
As you can see from his public speeches, people are most struck by how cute he can be when he wants.
His employees were convinced of this every day.
These contradictory qualities that get along in Jobs are called "the swing ' hero asshole'".
This term was coined in NeXT to describe an employee who has the ability to switch from a "layman" whose work was useless shit "to a "genius" who turned out to turn this shit into candy.
It just drove some people crazy.
Those who endured it are still working with Steve, some are even on the list of senior management.
The reasons for this lie in the very contradictory nature of Steve's character.
Former Apple CEO Gil Amelio spoke about the character and mood changes of Steve: "That's how it happened with him - his mood fluctuated from a surprisingly pleasant and thoughtful mood, to a state of extreme anger or despondency, which nullified any rational dialogue.
And there are so many variations of his mood that I never knew who I would be dealing with!"
The same can be said about Steve's famous changeability: “He can change his mind abruptly, completely changing his opinion about something,” an employee who wished to remain anonymous said about him.
“This is a very strange quality.
He can say: "I love white, white is the best color!".
And after three months to say: "white is not the best, black is the best!".
He does not accept the mistake, he just gets rid of it, it evaporates."
For him, this happens unconsciously.
In his sister's novel about him, " An Ordinary guy "("A Regular Guy"), the girlfriend of the hero Tom Owens/Steve Jobs talks about him: “He is like that.
He just forgets”"
However, Steve is not so unconscious in everything.
Some of his actions are completely deliberate: "Steve can bring a person to tears," said former NeXT director Pat Kretsin, " but this is not because he is mean, but because he is absolutely purposeful, almost manic in his pursuit of quality and perfection."
John Scully adds: "He had an innate ability to get the best out of people."
Even Steve admits this: "Our work will not be easy.
We take all these great people and give them a push to make them even better."
In addition to this role of a hero/asshole, Steve has a method of public scolding.
If the team failed to complete the task, someone was late or simply did not meet his standards, he simply came to them, asked for names and somehow publicly humiliated or even dismissed them in front of the others.
Many Apple employees have witnessed such events, but they all understand what their CEO was counting on.
A recent example is that Steve publicly fired several members of the MobileMe team after persistent problems occurred during the launch of their product.
In short, calling names and then flattering is a method of motivation from Steve Jobs.
And, despite what they teach in management schools,this strategy works.
When Steve Wozniak was asked about his friend's character, he replied: “If we talk about Steve as a person, he gave us a lot of great products.
However, he did not disdain to encroach on the personal decency and personal honesty of other people, he did not even respect those who work hard, he could just come up and say: "Oh, this is just shit!".
However, this is compensated by all the good things that he brought to the world”" Jean Louis Gesset, a former Apple executive who played a significant role in Steve's resignation in 1985, said: "Democrats donot make great products.
We need a tyrant”"
What cannot be overestimated is the unrestrained charm of Steve.
He could be the most convincing of people if he wanted to get a person who was considered the best in his business into the company.
One example is the story of Andy Herzfield, a former employee of NeXT.
When Steve wanted to bring Andy into his team, he said to Tom: "Hey, I heard that you are the best designer on the planet."
Sometimes, on the contrary, Steve was very tough: engineer Bob Bevil recalls how Jobs tried to lure him out of Xerox in 1982 with the words: "I've heard that you're the best, but everything you've done so far is shit.
Come and work for me."
Journalists have also repeatedly become the objects of such an ambiguous attitude of Steve, therefore, it is carefully documented.
Editor Rich Karlgaard of the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, who planned to write about the failure of NeXT, said: "On the phone, Mr. Jobs constantly threatened, including warning "to be constantly on guard" and, oddly enough, "not to ride a bike alone in the dark"."
But, nevertheless, he also admitted: "America loves Steve Jobs.
And so am I, although I shouldnot."
This is one of the features of Steve's character – he offers not to have anything to do with him.
Despite the fact that he considers all journalists insects, they are always happy to get an interview from him.
Has Steve relented?
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, everyone was surprised to see that their terrible manager, who had previously instilled fear in everyone, now softened, becoming more patient and thoughtful.
For example, Pixar employee Pamela Kerwin said about him in 1997: "He used to interrupt you after the first three words, and immediately put in: "Okay, here's how I would do it."
Now everything is different.
He listens a lot more, he has become calm, mature”" Steve himself acknowledged these changes, saying in an interview in 1998: "We still have to fire people from Apple, but now it's harder for me to do it.
Much harder.
I have to fire them because it's my job.
But I think about them the same way as I did 5 years ago.
And I think that these people can come to my house and tell my wife and children that I just fired them.
Or it could be one of my children in 20 years.
It's never been personal for me.”
These changes are also described in Mona Simpson's novel "An Ordinary Guy": a growing family and the gradual failure of NeXT have somewhat subdued his violent temper.
However, many argue that the talk about "softening Steve" is complete nonsense.
So says, for example, Alan Deichman in his work" The Second Coming of Steve Jobs "("The Second Coming of Steve Jobs").
He also claims that most employees donot just think that the situation has improved since NeXT, they say that Apple is much worse.
NeXT often joked: "you put in your five cents, and Jobs his 50 dollars."
Anyway, the most reliable source is Jobs ' friend John Warnock, who once said in an interview :" over the years of NeXT, he softened slightly, but now everything is different."
Steve's work habits.
What did Steve do at Apple?
What did Steve do at Apple?
"My job is to reflect, meet and work with people, and also read e mail," he said.
A typical hard worker.
Steve has repeatedly described in interviews the routine of his usual working day.
He said that all his data is stored on the server and he does not carry anything with him.
He can easily access them directly from his home computer, so home is also an office for him.
He added: "When I'm not at meetings, I mostly work with the mail.
So I start working a little earlier than the children wake up.
And then we have breakfast, finish our homework and send them to school.
If I'm lucky, I stay at home and work for an hour, because I have a lot of work, but then I still have to come to the office.
I usually get there around eight or nine o'clock."
He also said that he can call someone even late at night if he has a great idea and needs to share it urgently (especially after the appearance of iChat).
Therefore, we can conclude that he works almost all day, but this does not mean that he is in the office all day.
In addition, he is very concerned about family responsibilities: when Maria Shriver invited him to the ceremony of his inclusion in the California Hall of Fame, he refused because he planned to spend that evening with his family (nevertheless, Steve came).
Thus, the family greatly influenced how much time Steve devoted to work.
However, this happens to many entrepreneurs.
What did Steve do
“At the very beginning, I was engaged in everything: documentation, sales, deliveries, sweeping floors, buying chips... the list goes on.
I built computers with my own hands.
The industry grew and developed, and I continued to do all this”" This is the way of Steve – he was very actively involved in all Apple events until the very last days, going far beyond his duties as CEO.
The flair and intuition of Steve Jobs
As the" supreme ruler " of Apple, Steve determined the direction of the company's development.
To do this, it was necessary both to follow the trends of the industry sensitively, and to show their personal qualities.
And it was in these aspects that the true genius of Jobs was manifested.
It is worth recalling that he has no education in management, nor, of course, in engineering.
However, many engineers were surprised at what balanced decisions he managed to make and successfully put into practice, based on his instincts.
Steve Wozniak once said about this: "Steve managed to combine marketing, technology and finance.
He understood what was good in the field of technology, and what people would like.
He could not design a computer — he was neither a designer nor a programmer — however, he understood enough in these areas to say what is good and what is bad."
Bill Gates once admitted that it was this quality of Steve that he most envied: “I would give a lot to have Steve's taste.
I have a great intuition about the people of the company's products.
Solutions that personally seemed to me purely engineering, Steve decided from the point of view of" people are a product", and it is difficult for me to grasp this.
Steve makes decisions based on his knowledge of people's desires.
This is very difficult for me.
He does everything differently from everyone else and it's just amazing”" This ability was a decisive factor in the ascent of Jobs to the top of technological innovations.
He was like this from the very beginning of his path, as if this ability was innate.
Who did Steve work with
Obviously, Steve did most of the work with his team of executive managers.
Apart from them, perhaps, no one else has encountered him directly in work.
“It is impossible to work with 10,000 people at the same time.
I regularly communicate with five dozen people in the company at work.
Well, maybe with a hundred” " Jobs said.
However, he always knew his employees well.
He was familiar with most of the programmers and designers, and knew what they were doing in the company.
If he needed something, and he clearly knew who could handle it, he picked up the phone and personally addressed a specific employee.
In this sense, he neglected the hierarchy.
At Apple, the hierarchy has always been very simple, only six levels separated the average employee from the"leader".
Another of his famous habits was to suddenly appear in any of the departments of the company and ask employees what they were working on at that moment.
This forced employees to always give their best in their work, even when the management was not around.
"it used to be that you couldnot see him for a long time,” said one of the former engineers of the company.
“But you always know that he can appear at any moment, he is always somewhere nearby.
You always understand that what you are doing may or may not please him.
I mean, he may not know you.
But he knows exactly what you should do.
And what you do.
And he knows whether he likes it or not.”
Steve always considered the members of his senior management team to be exceptionally competent in all matters, and therefore he could undoubtedly entrust them with part of his work.
And they have always been important advisers to Jobs on the company's goals: "Often, people donot know what they want until you show them.
That's why many people at Apple are paid a lot of money – they have to manage it all."
Steve has always been famous for his staff selection criteria – he hired those who were the best in their field.
“I have always thought and think that if you do something twice as good as the others , you are phenomenally good, " he once said.
"The best is usually 30% better than the average.
In my work, I realized that Who, for example, was 25-50 times better than the others.
I also realized that such people do their job so well that it would be impossible to replace them with 50 others.
They did incomparably better”" This elitism of Steve was another distinctive feature of his leadership style.
So he attracted bright minds and kept them with generous options.
Steve's influence on Apple
What exactly did Steve Jobs create at Apple?
He didnot create anything specific, he just created everything
Former Apple CEO John Scully on Steve in the Macintosh project.
This company is woven into his DNA.
When he returned, everything fell into place.
Great design has returned, attention to the consumer, the development of simply cool products
Heidi Roizen, one of Steve's long term business partners.
"Mac is an expression of his creative impulse, and Apple is a reflection of Steve himself"
Larry Ellison, one of Steve's best friends.
Of course, Apple is a big company that employs many first class specialists.
But the heart and soul of this company, an inexhaustible source of its inspiration and creative impulse has always been Steve Jobs.
Apple "inherited" the qualities of its founding father:
A sense of aesthetics
Steve has always achieved the highest quality in all Apple products – both software and hardware.
This approach extended to everything, starting with the plastic case of the Apple II computer.
His sense of design, what he himself called " taste”, actually revolutionized the world of technology.
Another aspect of this sense of aesthetics was Steve's concept of the fusion of technology and art: “I've never thought about these things separately.
Leonardo Da Vinci was both a great artist and a great scientist.
Michelangelo knew everything about how to extract stone in a quarry.
A dozen of the best computer scientists I know are musicians."
He has never separated computer scientists and artists; this has been the case since the Macintosh.
Jobs ' Perfectionism
Steve is satisfied only when everything is done perfectly (this habit also applies to his personal life).
Such a high bar of perfection often just drives employees crazy, but at the same time, it encourages them to work hard, aimed at the highest results.
If an employee does not meet Steve's requirements, he will not accept to fire him, and Jobs is often criticized for this.
However, he always had a great relationship with bright minds – because they shared his desire for perfection.
An amazing example of such perfectionism is the number of Apple projects that were started but canceled at the last moment.
It is known that in this way the release of handhelds - personal electronic assistants from Apple, as well as a set of web services was canceled.
The original iMac, Apple stores, iPhone, and Apple tablet were also radically revised at the time.
The result of this approach is that Apple does not produce bad products.
Steve reminded reporters about this in 2007: "We canot create bad things.
We just canot do it.”
On behalf of the company, he refuses to produce products that he would not use himself.
His arrogance
What has never been in the character of Steve is modesty.
As one of the Apple employees said: "Steve is always the smartest among all.
And he knows it”"
Apple has inherited this trait as well.
To paraphrase the quote above: Apple creates the best products in the world, and it knows it.
Steve is the first to preach this concept: "he arrogates leadership to himself by ridiculing Apple's competitors, whom he calls mediocre, evil and worst of all tasteless.
Apple's arrogance is also evident in advertising, which, of course, is mostly based on Steve's vision.
The Pentium, for example, was depicted as a snail, showing that it is slow.
The advertising company "Transition to Intel" ("this is an Intel chip – for many years it was enclosed in a PC, inside small boring boxes, obediently performing small tasks, while it could have done so much great... from today, the Intel chip is free, and will live inside the Mac”).
And in general, the entire Mac PC campaign is a vivid example of such behavior of the company.
It is worth noting that this behavior also fuels the intrigue and passion for the company's products, both among users and Apple employees.
Considering that it still has a percentage of the personal computer market share.
Journalist David Plotnikov wrote: "the birth of the Mac was simply impossible without this exorbitant confidence."
Steve at Pixar
Prior to the merger of Pixar and Disney in 2006, Steve Jobs also served as the executive director of the animation studio.
What is noteworthy is that his work at Pixar was very different from his work at Apple or NeXT.
During the first decade of his management of the Pixar studio, he was focused on NeXT, considering Pixar as his hobby.
Ed Catmul and Eli Ray Smith came to Redwood City to tell Steve about how things were going.
This continued until the great success of the cartoon "Toy Story" came.
The company went public and Jobs began to devote more and more time to managing it.
However, his" aura " at Pixar was still different than in his computer companies.
In the personal computer industry, he was considered a genius and a great visionary, but for Pixar employees, he was just the owner of the company, well, the leadership unconditionally belonged to Catmul and Lasseter.
Thus, he could not invest his views in Pixar.
After Steve returned to Apple, he threw all his energy into the development of the "fruit company", and things went back to the same way as it was before"Toy Story".
Steve was not engaged in film production, he was developing a business strategy for Pixar.
He brought the company to the stock exchange, signed most of the contracts with Hollywood, and also organized the construction of the company's campus in Emerville.
However, the priority for him has always been Apple, not Pixar.
Director Brad Bird described Pixar's leadership, represented by the triumvirate of Catmul Lasseter Jobs, as "Father, Son and Holy Spirit".
Random Gallery Album
iPhone launch 29.06.2007
Quote from Steve Jobs
TV is stultifying and kills a lot of time.
Turn it off and you'll save some gray matter.
But be careful – you can also get stupid at an Apple computer.
Video with Steve
Titans - Steve Jobs.
CBNC
Change the screen on the iPhone 6 is cheap here.
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