SPECIAL: Steve Jobs (Part 1)

**Sam** (0:12)
On the road, let's travel, never looking back. All right, we've got a special episode here. This is from Ben Wilson. Ben Wilson's a producer for My First Million, but on the side, he's got a podcast called How to Take Over the World, and I love it. It was actually in my top Spotify wrap-up podcast, same with Sean, and so we air some of his episodes on our feed because we think it's amazing. And so this episode is with Steve Jobs. There's actually a two-part series. So this is, well, you could be listening to one or two right now, but it's a two-part series. And give it a listen, he does a really good job of saying the background of who Steve was and what motivated him, but he also does a really good job of explaining what you can learn from him in the world of business. So incredibly fascinating. Check it out, How to Take Over the World is the name of the podcast. And here is Steve Jobs.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:58)
I'm going to show you how great I am. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody.

**Ben Wilson** (1:20)
Hello, and welcome to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Today, we're gonna be talking about Steve Jobs. Steve is a really interesting case. I think in many ways, he is the face of greatness for our time. If you go to a list of most admired executives or CEOs of the 21st century, or of all time, he almost always appears. And usually at the very top of the list. And when you ask Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for their greatest inspirations, his name pops up all the time. And I think that's understandable. He helped introduce the world to some of the most important technologies of our time. You think about the smartphone, the personal computers, things that are really foundational to the way we live. Steve Jobs constructed a lot of the user experience around that. So a lot of the way that we live our lives is at least partially constructed by Steve Jobs. He helped create some of the most iconic consumer products ever, including the Apple II, the Macintosh, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iTunes, the App Store. He founded the most valuable company of all time in Apple. His estate is worth $19 billion, so obviously he was successful financially. Two of the companies he owned and is most known for, Apple and Pixar, are two of the most iconic brands in America and in the world. There have been dozens of books written about him, a handful of movies and countless profiles and articles. If you're going to talk about how to take over the world, you almost have to talk about Steve Jobs. His vision and mindset are everywhere around us, from the ubiquitous use of touch screen smartphones to the way entrepreneurs obsess over making physically beautiful products. His minimalist design aesthetic is the standard for technology forward companies. In many ways, we are living in Steve Jobs' world. So if we want to talk about how to take over the world, well, then we better talk about Steve Jobs. But in my experience, trying to emulate Steve Jobs is a dangerous game. Bill Gates joked that if you wrote a book about Steve Jobs' management style, it should be called, Don't Try This at Home. And I agree, Steve broke all the rules. That includes the stupid rules, yes, but it also includes some of the good rules about management and life that most people probably should follow. He dropped out of college without a good job lined up. Early in his career, he was an overbearing and often abusive boss. He wasn't a great programmer or engineer. He was known for his temper and for lashing out and yelling in these massive tantrums. He could drive people to near nervous breakdowns. He was a complete jerk to those around him often times. He insulted people all the time. He rarely listened to others and always thought he knew best. Some people think that he succeeded because of these things. I take the opposite view. I think he legitimately had huge weaknesses, glaring flaws. Remember, he founded two companies and was majority owner of one other. He was kicked out of one and the other two failed at their original purposes at least. But he succeeded magnificently because the management and entrepreneurial techniques and strategies he used were so powerful that they made up for these drawbacks. And therein actually lies the power of Steve Jobs' life. Not that he had no weaknesses, but that his strengths were so powerful that they could outweigh his huge glaring flaws. But unfortunately, a lot of people have trouble disaggregating his strengths and his weaknesses. So, with this episode, I feel a little bit like I'm giving you the one ring from Lord of the Rings. The lessons here are extremely powerful, but I would just say, make sure that you listen to and understand the whole thing. Exercise caution. If your number one takeaway from this lesson is, in order to be more like Steve Jobs, I have to be a jerk and be really mean to people, that's just not the right lesson. And that's not what made him great. Three little notes before we get started. First, there is a ton to learn and analyze, so this is a multi-part episode. Second, my sources. I used a number of different resources, but the two I leaned on by far the most are Walter Isaacson's biography, Steve Jobs, and the book Becoming Steve Jobs, colon, The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader, by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. Last thing is a mild content warning. There are some quotes I use that contain strong language.