The Tao of Steve Jobs

Just to get it out of the way, 'The Tao of Steve Jobs' has nothing in common with the movie 'The Tao of Steve' except for the first four words.  That's it.  This is not a book or movie or anything more than one small blog post about one amazing man.

It's almost a month since Steve Jobs died and there have been a zillion people opining about his life and legacy, as well as the inevitable detractors and tut-tutters.  And just when the stories seemed to be slowing down, out came his biography and TV shows - even SNL did its best. There are so many angles to the stories too - Steve the entrepreneur, the dropout/rebel, the wunderkind who was shunned by the tech establishment and then came back to show them, the family man who was felled by cancer.  Here are two widely different perspectives I liked reading: James Altucher's blog post and the eulogy by Mona Simpson (Steve's sister). 

For Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs, Steve was a god.  The one we all wished to be like, the fearless (and smashingly successful) entrepreneur,  the tech visionary who couldn't be caught, the genius worshiped by product designers everywhere.  Would-be entrepreneurs as well as famously successful ones (Zuckerberg, Page and Brin for example) desired to learn how to do it 'Steve's way'. 

The Tao of Steve Jobs, as I like to call it, are all those 'core values' that define the way he did things.  All these items are well known and are excellent advice not just for entrepreneurs, but possibly to anyone wishing to make something meaningful in his/her life:

• Focus.  
• You can't do everything, and certainly can't do everything well.  And yes, sometimes the focus is overwhelming and obsessive, but it may have to be so to get the job done.
• Simplicity.
•  Not only because of the inherent beauty in simplicity, but because it ultimately produces a better product, experience, outcome.
• Excellence.
• 'Perfect' trumps 'good enough' every time.
• 'Stay hungry.'
• If you're not striving and yearning for something, if you're not passionate about it, it's not going to happen.
  
• 'Stay foolish.'
• Do what you believe in.  Take the risk to act on it.

 (The last two are from Steve's speech to the Stanford students.  If you've somehow missed it or want to hear it again, here it is - one of the best commencement speeches of all time.)

A long while ago I wrote about what is important to me - create, care, connect (you can read that post here).  I realize how Steve epitomizes each of those.  He was undeniably creative - I've always appreciated Apple more than any other tech company as they tended to create, not copy/buy, successful ideas.  Steve cared deeply about what he did (even if he did not directly show his 'care' in the traditional way for social causes).  He micro-managed (and threw tantrums) because he cared so much about every aspect of what Apple built.  As for connecting, he connected the dots way, way outside the box and saw possibilities others couldn't even imagine.  Despite his imperfections, I admired him and what he represented - an embodiment of truth in design and the entrepreneurial fire.  He will be missed, and it may be ages before another like him shows up, but, like me, techies and entrepreneurs everywhere will be inspired by the Tao of Steve Jobs for a long time..

Upside of Failure

The Sunday New York Times magazine had a thought-provoking article on whether schools should focus on building 'character' and not just academic competence.  I generally applaud the sentiment, though I also believe that kids get much of their character guidance from parents and the community, with the school supporting and emphasizing it.

The article is titled 'What if the Secret to Success is Failure?' and goes on to cover all the character-building benefits of failing at something which then leads to future success.  Again, yes, I do support the concept as I believe it builds resilience, which is a big factor in successfully navigating this fast-changing world.  (I also believe students should be taught compassion, but that's a different story.)  What made this article particularly appealing to me is how much of this approach resonates with successful entrepreneurship.

"True: learning is fun, exhilarating and gratifying.... — but it is also often daunting, exhausting and sometimes discouraging."  Just like entrepreneurship!  "People who accomplished great things.... often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take."  That is the defining characteristic of an entrepreneur.  The concern about children from affluent families having so much done for them that they're unable to deal with setbacks is somewhat like an over-funded startup failing because it never had the pressure of limited resources making it focus on what was really important.  And of course, the idea that failed experiments and uncertainty contribute to the development of grit and ultimate success is one of the reasons that, in Silicon Valley at least, a two-time entrepreneur is respected, even if the first time was a bust.

There is more, for example, 'social intelligence' and 'optimism' are super helpful for entrepreneurs too.  Read the article here - it'll make you wonder if teaching entrepreneurship will do more than just help build the economy.

Once an entrepreneur...

We've heard of serial entrepreneurs who keep founding one company after another.  It's in their DNA, they can't think of doing anything else and they are, mostly, successful at it, so it's all good.

Today's MercNews had a story on a tech entrepreneur who's starting a new company - get this - more than 40 years after the first one.  It is Sandra Kurtzig coming out of decade-long retirement to launch a new venture.

The story itself focuses on the dearth of women CEOs in tech even though Sandra was a pioneer so many decades ago.  And that is a point worth considering and addressing, and maybe I'll add my take on it another time.  But, what grabbed me is that Sandra, apparently living the good life in Hawai'i, had an idea and was ready and willing to give it up to take on the startup challenge again.  Of course, doing a startup is a lot easier for Sandra than for most of us - she's launching with over $10 million in funding from top VCs, light years away from my bootstrapping stories.  Still, the funding doesn't take away from her drive and enthusiasm to take on a brand new venture.  Somehow the entrepreneurial calling didn't fade away regardless of lifestyle or age (maybe there's something to this story that more than 30% of online entrepreneurs are over 50).

It is exciting to see a pioneering entrepreneur come back after so long to lead a new startup and it will be fascinating to see how she steers her company in a world that has changed so much since the last time she was at the helm.  Go Sandra!