Erika Jones, CFO, CCTAProfit First Professionals · Certified Fractional CFO and Profit First Professional

Apple & Steve Job's failures, and the lessons that led to MASSIVE SUCCESS.

6 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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1:25

In this monologue, the speaker reflects on Steve Jobs' distinctive approach to product design, emphasizing the blend of technology and art as a core standard for Apple (and arguably Pixar). Unlike other tech firms that prioritized pure technical excellence, Jobs championed "artful tech," making Apple devices not just functional tools but expressions of personal identity. The speaker cites early examples such as the first Macintosh’s colorful shell, highlighting Jobs' willingness to introduce literal and figurative color into a market dominated by monochrome designs. The narrative then shifts to the concept of failure, recounting how Jobs was deemed a failure by Apple leadership when he was fired, yet this setback was later reframed as a catalyst for innovation. The speaker argues that failures can stem from misaligned expectations, outdated instruction sets, or a lack of willingness to deviate from the status quo, and that recognizing and redefining these setbacks can lead to breakthrough ideas.

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What is also interesting is that Steve Jobs was vehement about a standard for at least for Apple, I assume for Pixar too. But for Apple it was. How I define it is the blending of technology and art. Where every other organization, IBM, all these other companies that made technology, was about the best tech, so to speak, Steve Jobs said the most artful tech, and I'm not saying that was his words, but you can see the products it made became a representation of who you are as a consumer. The Apple phone is not just a phone, it's an expression of who I am. The first Mac I had had an orange kind of shell to it. Wherever the computer was off, white or black, he was the first to add color, figuratively and literally. I wonder if having this again beacon of where you head allows you to navigate failures. Next was a failure defined as it was not a sustainable company. Kudos to them. It was acquired by Apple. Steve Jobs was a failure according to the Apple leadership when he was first fired. But in the moment the were probably right, like based upon their rules and expectations and and all the stuff they had, he wasn't a fit. So a failure can simply be a setback. And it could be because the judgments around you are wrong. It could be because the instruction set you followed wrong. Or maybe it's just everyone's following the generic instruction set of make it a black or white computer and someone's got to be the first to say that is a failure the way we've been doing it and introduce something new.