3 Business Lessons from Steve Jobs
I won't lie to you, I still am a little shocked that Steve Jobs has passed. People like him, who are able to build and create and make tangible, the things seen first in their minds, should live until they are 200. Longer, in fact.
As someone who's enjoyed Mr. Jobs beautifully made products for years now, and as a lover of technology, the internet and digital media, his passing has me feeling both incredibly sad, but also, incredibly grateful. Grateful because although he only lived for 56 years, he was absolute proof that if you dare to be who you are, you can literally change the world.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur anywhere in the world, be it here in Nigeria, or Zimbabwe, the Philippines, the UK or the US - is difficult. The challenges may come in different forms, but can render the same feelings of despair or doubt the same way across the globe. Still, as those who've built businesses know and what Steve Jobs has helped to show us through his work - success comes to those who:
Keep it Simple:
“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. - Steve Jobs”
First Generation iPod
Remember when the iPod first came out? It was a work of art. So easy to use and did exactly what it was supposed to. I had both walkmans and portable cd players (remember those?!) before the iPod but none were as hassle free as the iPod. The same went for my Macbook. The day my HP computer finally crashed on me, I almost jumped for joy. Because now I had a legitimate reason to get a Mac.
Great businesses create products and services that are simple to use. Your clients and customers are not coming to you for complexity. Keep your solutions simple. Easy to use. Make it easy for people to spread the word about the wonderful offerings you have, by making it easy for them to use it.
Think Different.
This was the first television commercial Apple made, back in the mid 80s. That small notion - 'think different' was the ethos of Apple. Steve Jobs did things differently - figured out how to harness of the power of the song download when the music companies just didn't get it, figured out how to make a tablet that got people excited, when competitors just couldn't do it - and so on and so forth. Sometimes the different things Apple did appeared "crazy" at first, but greatness tends to start off that way - seemingly crazy, but undeniably different.
Keeping in line of the first lesson, one doesn't have to look for complex, grandiose ways to do things differently, but thinking different, and doing differently than all the others in your sector or industry, could mean the difference between a solid business, and a wildly successful one.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
This is definitely one of the greatest speeches of the last decade and it's because he didn't say anything earth shattering. He didn't enlighten us with information, facts, figures, experiences that were so out of this world as to be unfathomable. What he did was highlight his experiences and help us to see the connections and similarities. Sometimes its the seemingly foolish decisions, the times when we decide to drop out, to drop in, that lead to the breakthrough your company needs.
What business lessons have you taken from Steve Jobs and his work over the past 30+ years? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
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