#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

**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.
The saga of Steve Jobs is the Silicon Valley creation myth writ large, launching a startup in his parents' garage and building it into the world's most valuable company.
He didn't invent many things outright, but he was a master at putting together ideas, art and technology in ways that invented the future.
Some leaders push innovation by being good at the big picture. Others do so by mastering details.
Jobs did both, relentlessly.
Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford.
Biographers are supposed to have the last word, but this is a biography of Steve Jobs.
Even though he did not impose his legendary desire for control on this project, I suspect that I would not be conveying the right feel for him, the way he asserted himself in any situation if I just shuffled him onto history's stage without letting him have some last words.
Over the course of our conversations, there were many times when he reflected on what he hoped his legacy would be.
Here are those thoughts in his own words.
My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products.
Everything else was secondary.
Sure, it was great to make a profit because that's what allowed you to make great products, but the products, not the profits, were the motivation. Scully flipped these priorities to where the goal was to make money. It's a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything. The people you hire, who gets promoted, what you discuss in meetings.
Some people say give the customer what they want, but that's not my approach.
Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do.
I think Henry Ford once said, if I asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse.
People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.
Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place.
There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a desire to express themselves. In fact, some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the 70s, computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science.
Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor.
At different times in the past, there were companies that exemplified Silicon Valley. It was Hewlett Packard for a long time. Then in the semiconductor era, it was Fairchild and Intel.
I think that it was Apple for a while, and then that faded. And then today, I think it's Apple and Google, and a little more so Apple.
I think Apple has stood the test of time. It's been around for a while, but it's still at the cutting edge of what's going on.