Lessons learned from Steve Jobs

Drew Stevens

Steve Jobs the influential and well respected leader of Apple has passed but his passing leaves many lessons for all. 

• Passion – Mr. Jobs love building computers and creating new things more than he loved life. When people told him no he kept pushing. Always move forward and stand up for what you believe in, never take no for answer.
• Creativity – Creativity sparks innovation. Our great country was formed from the innovative talents of the Fords, Columbus’s, Lincoln’s, Franklins and others of the world. Mr. Jobs saw the future and he paved the way for others such as Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Use your creativity wisely.
• Live your purpose – When told no he marched forward. When terminated he only saw bumps. Live each day with purpose, direction and desire.
• Excellence – Mr. Jobs was on an endless quest to make every product perfect. While success and perfection are hard to achieve always seek to be the best you can be. Be the best you can be each and every day.
• Communicate with others – Great people communicate up and down the ladder. Great people always seek mentors and mentors always seek feedback. Communication is good, communication is necessary, and communication is understanding and education.
• Connectivity – This is not technical connectivity but great people always seek out to build out great communities. Apple continually does well because they engage with customers to build the community allure.
• Inspire others – Working as he did, sharing his vision and mission helped to inspire all people around him. All great leaders in history provide inspiration in their thoughts and in their passion. Inspiration builds the collaboration needed to incite great teamwork.
• Skip too much research and get close to clients – Mr. Jobs had a knack for knowing what customers wanted. He knew that remaining close to clients helped to acquire and retain. Skip the crap on profits and productivity. Focus on your number one asset – customers. Meet with them, speak with them and focus on them stop the rote research that tends to lead to indecision.
• Take risk – One amazing concept of Mr. Jobs was his relentless pursuit to take risks. When he as fired from Apple he began the computer company NeXt. He helped build Pixar and started a new way of animation the world had not seen. He built a small homogenous device for music when music downloading and during a recession. And continued to build devices when the world was stuck on “crack berry” and notebooks. He said, try it, do it the heck with what they think. Sometimes we get in our own way because of our comfort zone – Mr. Jobs had none.

  Rest in peace Mr. Jobs. iSad.

© 2011. Drew Stevens PhD. All rights reserved. Drew Stevens PhD works with organizations that struggle with productivity that effects profits. Dr. Drew works with senior officers and their direction reports to dramatically increase relationships that build higher morale. He can be reached through his website at www.stevensconsultinggroup.com