Steve Jobs - Life Lessons

Steve Jobs as a person needs no introduction. People know him as the founder of Apple and as an amazing leader. But there are lot of intricacies involved in his personality worth knowing to truly understand why he got the success he got.

                               

Steve Jobs thorough his career had revolutionised many industries. He single-handedly transformed computer industry with Macintosh, Animation industry with Pixar, Music industry with iPod and iTunes, Mobile Phone industry with iPhone and Tablet industry with iPad. His genius lies not in the result but in the process and the way he did it. Everybody knows how and why he created these industries. But let us look at some situations where he exhibited a flash of brilliance that was needed for the day.

1. Fonts in Macintosh

Computers back in 1984 were majorly used in the field of research and publishing. When Steve and his team were brainstorming for the breakthrough features that needed to be put in Macintosh, Steve came up with this idea of having different typefaces (fonts) in word processing software. When they executed this idea and released the product, this feature became the talking point and a huge success as publishers instantly fell in love with the feature. Only later in 2004 when Steve gave his commencement address at Stanford, did he mention that the idea of different fonts came only because he had dropped out of his college and dropped in calligraphy classes. It is hard to believe but the truth is if Steve Jobs hadn’t taken calligraphy classes we wouldn’t have had this feature of fonts.

So he said to all the young graduates that attended the ceremony not to ask the question of why when you are learning. In his own words, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

2. iPod and the Aquarium

Steve Jobs was a micro manager and he used to handpick the design himself looking at the prototypes. When a designer showed him a prototype of an iPod, Steve was not satisfied with the size as it didn’t fulfill his his vision of “1000 songs in your pocket.” Steve asked the engineer to make it smaller for which he got a reply that minimizing it further is impossible. He stood up took that iPod and threw it in the aquarium in his office and showed him the water bubbles emerging from it. Then he said to the engineer with his ever passionate tone. “Tell that you can’t do it. Don’t call it impossible. Go back and rework.”

3. Being a Control Freak

Steve approved a Prototype of iPod and the manufacturing facility was about to start the trial production of iPod when Steve halted it saying the socket into which the headphones went was “defective.” Engineers were called to Steve Jobs’ office and Steve started to complain that the socket was not “clicky” enough. Engineers didn’t understand the problem and Steve started telling that click is the only feedback a user gets when he inserts the headphone into the socket. When he hears it, he feels content that he inserted it properly. So I want sockets to be reengineered. 

Here’s a CEO complaining about sound that came when you inserted your earphones into the socket.

4. Stepping into the Shoes of a User

Steve being a CEO of Apple had used products of different competitors so that Apple as a company was never behind the competitors’ offerings. Whenever he opened any box of an electronic product, the user manual used to say “charge for 8-16 hours before switching it on.” Steve as a user was irritated on seeing this. Steve then called the lead of iPod project Tony Fadell and said to him “I don’t want to see this in my product. User should start using iPod from the instant he sees it.” Tony Fadell presented him the problems from manufacturing perspective on how difficult and lengthy manufacturing process will now become as they needed an extra hour to charge the batteries. Steve then asked the product’s hard disk to be tested for an extra hour versus 10 minutes they did till then so that the quality assurance is higher and batteries would charge.

From then, every electronic product started coming with at least 50% charge so that users need not wait impatiently for the product to charge.

5. AM/ PM in an iPod

Interface engineers in iPod's team were having a heated debate on which font to use for the new clock face they were designing. They tried different fonts but it was affecting the aesthetics of the clock design. When Steve Jobs walked in to the lab, engineers explained him the problem. Steve Jobs as usual within a second came up with an amazing as well as aesthetically pleasing solution - He said "Use a white face if it is day and use a black one if it is night." 

Now talk about spontaneity. Anyone?

6. Success through Cannibalization 

Sony had been the king of consumer electronics in the 20th Century. Experts believe that Sony had necessary technology to make iPod before Apple but they chose not to because they are worried if the sales of the CDs would drop as the consumption pattern changes. Nonetheless Apple did it and as a result Sony’s sales dropped. Steve learned this lesson fast. In 2005, when iPod has been the primary revenue generator for Apple, Steve Jobs asked his strategic team to name a product that can kill iPod. Everybody said mobile phone with music capabilities has the ability to kill an iPod. Steve said “Let’s do a phone.”

And the rest was history.

7. Attention to Detail

This is what Steve Jobs said to Vic Gundotra, a google executive on the phone on Sunday Morning. "So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve. "I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have a team member of mine fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?" 

But in the end, when we think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, just think about this call a top level executive of google received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson we all as future leaders should never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday. 

This is the reason why Steve Jobs was such a person whose personality is worth emulating, whose actions are worth imitating and whose words are worth inscribing. 

He is not a coder, he didn’t know how to program, he didn’t learn design academically. But this is how he described himself:

“Musicians play their instruments.

 I play the orchestra” 

Uber and Ola- The new revolutions in transport.

On a sunny (I'd rather say hot) Wednesday afternoon, I was waiting for a bus to get a ride to a friend’s place nearby. As always the frustration to wait for public transport, the convenience of having AC in a cab and laziness to walk last few metres after getting down a bus influenced me to open apps that are present under “travel” category in my phone. So I opened Uber. Requesting for a ride, the driver arriving there and me getting in to the car hardly took 5 minutes from the tap of a button. The conversation I had with the driver influenced me to write this column. 

After I got in, the first thing he did was to confirm my Identity and started to write my name in a book with the odometer reading beside it. I asked him the reason for doing it. He said in elegant English, “Sir, I have been getting wrong readings in Uber dashboard while I have been riding longer distances than what is being showed. So I wanted to confirm whether it is any technical error and wanted to report it.” I was offended when he said he found fault with technology. Geek in me came out brashly and explained him how navigation works and said that mighty Google powers Uber’s backend of navigation. He listened patiently and said to me, “Sir I have been getting cancelled rides and some non payment issues because of combination of wallet and cash. I just want to make sure that there is no foul play. Nothing against Google or Uber.” There’s a shiny Asus phone plugged and set in a stand on the car. I asked him whether he purchased it. He said that Uber gave it to him. “I was offered Samsung and Asus. I hate bloatware in Samsung and touchwiz is laggy. So, I have selected Asus.”

Then our conversation moved from technology to revenue models. I asked him, “How do you make profits from Uber? We pay a mere Rs. 7/Km and is it even viable for you?” He smiled and said, “Sir, apart from whatever you give us, we get an incentive of Rs. 100 or Rs. 125 based on the type of car whether it is a Sedan or a Hatchback. In addition to that for each hour we login, we get Rs. 200 irrespective of whether we get rides or not. I asked him whether those incentives remain forever. He said that starting from 1st Nov, prices of Uber are going to be increased with all the incentives for drivers cancelled and the new price is going to be Rs. 16/Km and are going to serve sub-urban as well. I was surprised and agitated at the same time and said, “How could they do that? Do they even realise that people are going to desert them if the prices hike outrageously high?” Then he said to me, “Sir, you can’t desert us. You know that, we know that, Uber knows that. Will you now after enjoying the private rides go back to footboard rides on a bus? Uber went as far as to rent Audi s and Benz s for Rs. 25000 a day from top celebrities only to attract people to Uber. They are even showing losses in the profitable counterparts only to provide free rides and promos and push this concept aggressively in India.* Bitter truths are hard to digest and I countered him to back his claim. He replied wryly, “Surge pricing. Surge pricing is a strategy to test your spending capabilities. There are 20 lakh cars in Hyderabad which are registered to Uber and let’s say, 25% of them are offline. There would still be 15 lakh cars on roads and rarely will there be a deficiency. Even at the time of surge where the prices would go 3 X or 3.5 X, people are not stopping. And recently when Uber started charging Rs. 18/Km after 16 Km, it didn’t deter people from taking a ride.” Now I didn’t have anything to speak. 

My destination arrived and while he was pressing “End trip” on his console, I asked him, “How much do you make?” He replied “Rs. 65000 - 80000 a month.” As I readied myself to pick my bag I have promised it to be the last question and asked him “What is your qualification?” “M.Com.” Understanding the bafflement on my face, he continued speaking “I didn’t want to work under anyone. I love driving and wanted to be my own boss and thankfully technology is allowing me to do it.” 

If technology is allowing a man in his 30s to follow his passion, giving him financial freedom, and is encouraging public to lead a better way of life, I’ll indeed call it Revolutionary in bold and italics :)

*I was unable to confirm the claim.