When the Stars of Innovation and Creativity got Aligned for a Magical Period in Time

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do" -Apple

There are legends. There are legacies. But there can be only one Steve Jobs. Most of you may know him from the creator of Ipad, Ipod or Iphone. But the fact is that the man actually revolutionized seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablets, retail stores and digital publishing. He will therefore be forever remembered with the likes of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Walt Disney.

This post is to list down all the important management lessons derived from his timeline which I read in HBR and to contribute my share of homage to Steve Jobs. One of the best thing I learned about him was that he used to think that normal rules didn't apply to him. I know such thought can be a ferocious weapon if gotten into wrong hands but Jobs used it wisely. Jobs's mentor (Mike) advised him three principles in life which were empathy, focus and impute. Impute in management means to establish a person's personal experience or emotion with the product. Following are his most important lessons extracted from his life :-

1. Focus

2. Simplify

3. Take responsibility 

4. When behind, Leapfrog

5. Put products before profits

6. Don't be a slave to focus groups

7. Impute

8. Push for perfection

9. Tolerate only "A" players

10. Engage face-to-face

11. Know both the big picture and the details

12. Combine the humanities with the science
13. Stay hungry, stay foolish


Once Jobs in his adolescence was building a fence in his backward with his father. His father told him to take as much care with the back of the fence as to do with the front. Jobs said "Nobody will know about the back of fence". His father replied "But you will know". A true craftsman is more concerned with the passion of perfection rather than saving resources for personal benefits. So go for perfection and everything else will follow themselves.

Job's 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech

Endnotes

1. Reference from Harvard Business Review. Walter Isaacson brought forth these important lessons from Job's life and is the writer of biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.

2. I'd recommend to get a copy of HBR (april edition) to read the full article.

Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. - Steve Jobs