#19 Becoming Steve Jobs

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high. So I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show. So we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today. And I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th.
In part because of the way Steve quarreled with Marcula and Scott, in part because he so brazenly asserted his opinion as fact, and in part because over the length of his career, he neglected to share credit for Apple's successes in the press, Steve developed a reputation as an ego maniac who wasn't willing to learn from others.
It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the man, even during his youngest, brashest, and most overbearing years. While Steve looked to his elders at Apple for guidance, he also sought it out elsewhere. He didn't yet have the skills to build a great company, but he admired those who had pulled it off, and he would go to great lengths to meet them and learn from them.
None of these people were really in it for the money, he told me. David Packard, for example, left all his money to his foundation. He may have died the richest guy in the cemetery, but he wasn't in it for the money. Bob Noyce, co-founder of Intel, is another. I'm old enough to have been able to get to know these guys. I met Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, when I was 21 I called him up and told him I had heard he was really good at operations and asked him if I could take him out to lunch. I did that with Jerry Sanders, founder of Advanced Micro Devices, and with Charlie Spork, founder of National Semiconductor and others. Basically, I got to know these guys who are all company builders. And the particular scent of Silicon Valley at that time made a very big impression on me.
So that's from one of the first chapters of the book that I want to talk to you about today, which is Becoming Steve Jobs, the Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader. And the authors, two of our authors are Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.
And so, long time listeners of this podcast will know that I've already covered Steve Jobs by reading the authorized biography that Isaacson did on him.
Isaacson spent some time with him right before he died and then published the book shortly thereafter. But I'm gonna tell you why I think this book is so interesting to me. And I'm gonna tell you that by just reading to you why the author wrote the book.
And here's what he has to say. I kept coming back to the time that many have described as his wilderness years, the dozen years between his first tenure at Apple and his return. That error from 1985 to 1997 is easy to overlook. The lows aren't as dramatic as the blowups of his first tenure at Apple. And the highs, of course, aren't as thrilling as those he engineered in the first decade of the 21st century. These were muddled, complicated times and not the stuff of easy headlines. But those years are, in fact, the critical ones of his career. That's when he learned most everything that made his later success possible. And that's when he started to temper and channel his behavior. To overlook those years is to fall into the trap of only celebrating success. We can learn as much, if not more, from failure, from promising paths that turned into dead ends. The vision, understanding, patience and wisdom that informed Steve's last decade were forged in the trials of these intervening years.