Steve Jobs Taught Guy Kawasaki Don't Make Things 'Slightly Better' — Here Is What The Apple Co-Founder Thought About Big Changes And Big Money
Guy Kawasaki, former Apple chief evangelist, shared insights from Steve Jobs at the Inc. 5000 Conference, emphasizing that significant impact arises from bold innovations rather than minor improvements. He illustrated this with the evolution of ice production, advocating for 'jumping curves' to achieve substantial success. Kawasaki acknowledged Jobs' abrasive style but highlighted the importance of being mission-driven over ego. He reiterated Jobs' belief in hiring only top talent, a sentiment echoed by Elon Musk, underscoring that elite teams can outperform larger groups.
Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com and former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief evangelist, says the most important lesson he took from working for Steve Jobs is that meaningful impact does not come from minor tweaks and incremental upgrades but from bold leaps.
A Key Page From Steve Jobs’ Vision Book
Speaking last October at the Inc. 5000 Conference, the current Canva chief evangelist said Jobs pushed him to stop thinking in 10% increments and instead "jump to the next curve."
Kawasaki illustrated the idea with his familiar history-of-ice analogy. The industry progressed from harvesting lake ice, to centralized ice factories to the "personal ice factory," the household refrigerator. "I learned from Steve Jobs [that] the big changes, the big money, the big everything, is made by jumping curves, not making a slightly better ice factory."
Steve Jobs’ Focus On Mission-Driven Leadership
Kawasaki credited Jobs with shaping his career but added an unvarnished caveat. He told attendees he wouldn't be where he is without Jobs' influence, yet acknowledged that Jobs could be abrasive. He said he has seen that hard-edged style repeatedly in Silicon Valley, and he drew a distinction between two versions of it, one driven by ego and another driven by mission.
Kawasaki said Jobs fit the latter profile and stressed you don't have to be abrasive to succeed, but being mission-driven is essential. “If you're mission-driven, you ignore the superficialities about sexual orientation and religion and skin color and gender and all that," he said. "All you care about [is]: can you contribute to the mission? Or can you not?”
Hiring Only ‘A Players'
The ethos echoes Jobs' long-held view that the biggest lever in technology is staffing teams exclusively with "A players." In a 1990s interview, Jobs argued the performance gap between good and great software talent can be "50-to-1," and that small bands of elite contributors outperform far larger groups.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly endorsed that mantra, saying lean teams of top performers can outclass bigger ones, sentiments he's linked to Jobs' approach several times.
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