MBA899 Must Read: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

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It's gotten a lot of praise for how complete it is. And that's due to the fact that Walter Isaacson, the author, was very close to Steve Jobs and actually was commissioned to write his biography by Steve himself. Now having said that, Walter does not pull any punches. He gives you the whole truth, the whole picture. The good, bad and yes, the ugly. There is so much I've gotten out of this book. There's so much I've gotten out of his story. It's an absolutely epic story. And to be quite honest, I was a bit choked up at the end of the book when it was all over. It's almost Like, I officially said goodbye to Steve Jobs, but when it comes to business, there's so much you can learn from his life, from his way of doing business. And I'm going to extract those nuggets and offer them to you in today's episode. We got a lot to cover, so let's get into it. Let's get down to business. When it comes to this book, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. There's the elephant in the room. Every time I speak about this book or discuss it with a friend, the first thing that comes up is, man, is that a big book? Yes, it is a large book, but don't let that discourage you. Took me longer than I expected to complete it, but I enjoyed every step of the way and I learned a ton of. And some of those things I want to share with you today. Now, the first thing that you learn when you read this book really quickly is that Steve Jobs is not your average person. He's just not. From a young age, he was getting into trouble because of his crazy pranks, really creative pranks that he played on his classmates. If you didn't know, Steve Jobs was adopted. And his adoptive parents never really hid that from him. So from a young age, Steve knew that his parents weren't really his biological parents, but they were such a loving family and very supportive of all his creative endeavors. Now, Steve was very interested in technology, but he wasn't necessarily a tech geek. He wasn't really a developer or hardware expert, but he had a very creative mind. When I teamed up with a friend of his, Steve Wozniak, and they started Apple out of his own garage, his parents garage. So Apple was a small business, a small startup. And that's my first takeaway where you realize, wow, he built personal computers with Steve Wozniak and sold them out of his garage. And now Apple is the most profitable business on the planet. Think about that. Two guys team up in a garage. It's not even an office. And that's the start. And it's really motivational because it makes you think, wow, no matter where I am, where I'm doing, whatever my situation is, whether I'm building my business on a laptop on my couch in my living room, this can be done. And man, he didn't have all the tools that we have now in the modern era of the Internet. So that was takeaway number one. Wow. Humble beginnings. But quickly they took off. The next takeaway is when Apple started, even when they started selling their computers out of their garage and they named themselves Apple computers. Steve never underpriced his products. He was actually more expensive than a lot of the competition. But he differentiated by being innovative. Apple was the first company to put together a computer as an all in one solution where you have the computer, the cpu, the monitor and the keyboard all kind of tied in, and then later the mouse. And he knew that people would buy it at the price it deserves. And that was a huge reminder to me that, hey, when you undervalue your own products, your customers really don't know what they're getting. And price is an indicator of value, whether you agree with it or not. We all see more expensive products out there in the market and we think that must be better or there's gotta be something about it that's different. We don't think that about products that are cheap or low priced. In fact, my expectations for it are so low. I'm gonna give you a very simple example. If I went to the Dollar store to buy, let's say a pen, right? The pen would probably be less than a dollar. I would not expect that pen to last more than a year. If anything, it'd probably last a few months. I didn't pay much for it. But let's say, for example, I went to a G or a bookstore and there was a pen in the display case. That's $100. There's a big difference between a dollar and $100. And man, that's expensive for a pen. But people that value a great pen, that don't wanna throw out pens every few days or every few months, they wanna have a pen that's gonna last 10, 20, 30 years, they'll pay a hundred bucks. And by the way, in the market of pens, a hundred dollars is not the top limit. There's lots of pens that are a lot more expensive. And that's where Apple kind of they said, hey, we are a little bit more pricier than the other computers out there, but we deliver on great value. And I love that. Not undervaluing his products. Another thing that I learned that I didn't know when I started reading about the early history of Apple came out with the Macintosh and the Apple ii. There were major delays in the release of these products because Jobs was very driven to have a great product. He was a perfectionist to a fault. And the rest of his team were really annoyed by this. They were like, hey, this should have been out a year ago. And you can agree or disagree with that philosophy, but you have to respect his conviction. His conviction to really put out great Products. His standard was so high that the goalposts kept on moving that, where he'd be like, okay, this is a great product. And then a couple days later he's like, you know, what can be improved? And they never release it. Now, he's learned from those mistakes in the past, and they stuck to deadlines, and they're pretty good now. You know, they release the iPhone when they say they're going to release the iPhone. And they stuck to those deadlines when Jobs was around as well. But the point here is that he put the products first. He didn't worry about revenue. He didn't worry about meeting people's expectations. He really didn't worry about what people would say about him. In fact, a lot of people badmouthed Steve Jobs throughout his career. But he created what he called the reality Distortion field. His reality distortion field, where he will block out any negativity, block out anybody saying things that are negative about him. And he was just very driven to actually accomplish his goal, which is produce great products, putting the products first, great takeaway. The next takeaway was huge and worth the book itself. And it has to do with what I just mentioned. Steve Jobs, Reality Distortion Field. Steve had an incredible ability to focus on the right things and push out the wrong things. He didn't focus on the naysayers, on the haters. He wasn't so consumed where he couldn't do his work, by the critics. And maybe, yeah, he wasn't around for the height of the social media era. He passed in 2011. You know, there's still social media out there, but there were lots of newspapers, magazines, and then later on blogs that really wrote critically about him. And for the most part, he just didn't really care. On a few occasions if it was a big publication, he would write to the actual editor and have a rebuttal. Even other things in his life, whether there were financial issues, whether there were family issues, he just blocked them out because he was so driven and so focused on his goal at Apple. Now, I mentioned Apple Lab. A lot of people don't know that Steve Jobs is also the CEO of Pixar. Yeah, Pixar. The same company that came up with Toy Story and Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. And all these hit animation movies. And for a good time, he was the CEO of Apple and Pixar at the same time. And when I got to that part of the book, I was like, this dude's a machine. I mean, incredible, incredible work ethic. Now, Steve is not perfect, and there are flaws that are highlighted in this book. And it's important not to brush over them. And actually the author mentions that he doesn't brush over these because it's important to mention the whole picture, everything, all the dimensions of Steve Jobs. One of those flaws is that Steve is brutally honest. And let's emphasize this underline, let's bold the word brutally. I mean, he would tear people up, whether it's privately in a board meeting or publicly on a walk or going to get a smoothie from Whole Foods. I mean, he would just go at people, whether he knew them for years or he just met them. And a lot of people around him were just puzzled by this. Why is Steve so insensitive when he's such a sensitive guy? That's where a lot of his creativity comes from, where he understands how people think and use products. And that's how he was able to kind of be the inventor of a lot of these products, as well as, you know, the design mind behind a lot of the stuff. Now Steve kind of saw it as like, hey, that's who I am. I'm, you know, a little bit rough and tumble, rough around the edges. I'm going to say it like it is. If you don't like it, too bad. I want only a players. And he really saw that by doing that, he pushed people to do things they never thought they could do. And in fact, when Walter Isaacson, the author of this book, interviews people that did get chewed up by Steve Jobs and they would badmouth him, say this guy was absolutely crazy, he would just like really lay it in. And I'm a hard working person and I'm highly respected in my field. But even after all the criticism, they would finish up their statement by saying, but he pushed me to do things I never thought were possible. So whether you agree with it or not, now, I'm not the kind of person that says, be a jerk with everybody. I'm not that kind of person to recommend that. But he really pushed his team to challenge themselves, to really ask themselves the question, what really is possible? What is possible? Maybe I think something's impossible when it's not. There were so many times when they were building a product where somebody on the team would be like, that's impossible, we can't do that. And he just couldn't take that for an answer. And he challenged them and says, why is it impossible? Why it can be done, you could do it. And he was so convincing, he convinced them that they can do it. And then he did it. And you need that kind of leadership if you're going to change the world the way Steve Jobs changed the world. But I don't think he should have been so rude to people. That's just me. But I do recognize the fact that he does recognize that that's who he is and that he isn't a nice guy. So it's not like he's deluded or delusional about who he is. Another kind of flaw that's kind of hard for me to share with you because it makes me really sad about Steve Jobs, his life. And as I'm listening to his story, as I'm listening to all the little stories within his life, I just felt like Steve was constantly battling, constantly fighting. He was a serious fighter. Whether he's competing with Microsoft, whether he's competing with his own management, whether he's trying to get his opinion across to the design team, he's constantly fighting. And I just felt like, wow, this guy never chills, you know, he never has a chance to relax. And I just felt like maybe his life wasn't that enjoyable. But then I thought maybe that's just from my perspective, maybe my life, my definition of enjoyment or happiness is not his. And as the book kind of rounded off and we're towards the end of his life, I really felt like, you know, he really felt like he had a great life. Even though it didn't seem like a lot of fun for me. I felt like he never really celebrated any of his wins. He just went to the next thing and innovated and just really was working 24 7. I mean, he would go home and he couldn't even talk to his family because he's so tired. So he definitely didn't have a work life balance that everybody preaches about. But I learned that we have to define our own happiness. We need to define what is a happy life for him that was happy. He was happy like, that he was happy to sacrifice all his time to what he was creating for you. That may not be the case, but you need to define that. And you can't hold anybody accountable to your own rules. And I love that about this book. It really made me question if there's really a right way or wrong way to do this, when really it's just a choice. It's the personal choice. And who am I to judge? You know, am I going to judge Steve Jobs and the choices he made? I certainly wouldn't want somebody to judge me. So I really wanted to share that with you because you do get that vibe as you're listening to a story that, man, this guy is just go, go, go, go, year after year, decade after decade, never puts his foot off the gas and just feisty fighting with everybody. And I thought, wow, this guy just, he just never shuts off. And maybe that's just my own kind of fatigue or stress talking, like I need a break or something. So it really made me reflect.

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Could this vintage store be any cuter?

Right?

And the best part, they accept Discover. Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby, get with the times. Right? So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report, two more takeaways from the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The first one is the thing that really stands out in this book is the incredible team that Steve Jobs built at Apple, at Pixar as well. But it's really highlighted in Apple. The players that he's working with in his team are all a players. They're incredible. They're Steve Jobs in their own right. I mean, the head designer, Jony I've is the guy behind some of the most innovative products in the world. Things like the ipod and the design of the iPhone. The things that we think are incredible even today. Tim Cook, who is now the CEO of Apple, was his right hand man for a very long time. Very, very smart guy. Cool Headed kind of like the opposite of. Steve can cut incredible deals. He worked with the best marketing firms, he partnered with the best celebrities to market his products, like Bono from U2. It was a huge deal when Bono came out and supported Apple and Apple utilized U2's song Vertigo and made Vertigo a hit and made the ipod a hit. So Steve was really brilliant at partnering with the right people, building a great team, and he had a great sense for talent. And that really made me reflect about our own businesses. Now how are we refining our team? How are we recruiting and attracting great players? And by the way, yeah, Apple paid people fairly, but they weren't the highest paying employer in Silicon Valley. People were attracted to the mission of Apple, what it stood for, the change they were making in the world. Which leads me to the last takeaway I want to share with you. If you take a look at Steve Jobs life and what he did at Apple, he did at Pixar, he's really made a mark. His legacy is incredible. He changed the personal computing industry with the Macintosh, making it so easy to use a personal computer that was unheard of at the time. Computers were just for data analysts and people that can read code. He came up with a beautifully designed operating system so you can just point and click. He innovated in the animation space at Pixar with incredible animation, way ahead of its time. A movie like A Bug's Life was an incredible feat in technology, but they also had great storylines and plots, really differentiated themselves from the other animation studios. So much so that Disney bought out Pixar because they were like, hey, if you can't beat them, buy them out. He's innovated with music, with the ipod, having a thousand songs in your pocket, unheard of. He innovated with itunes, where people can purchase music, 99 cents, any song they like. This made it easy for users, but it also saved the music industry from piracy. I mean, he could have ended it there and it would have been an amazing legacy. But he kept going. He innovated with mobile technology, with iPhone. IPhone is the smartphone. It's the first smartphone. And after that, everybody tried to do the same thing. The pinch and zoom, the swipe, the apps, all that stuff came from Apple. The iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone. And then later they revolutionized the tablet industry with the iPad. The iPad one was the fastest selling product of all time. Incredible. Me Nicole joke all the time, where, you know, our mothers really love their iPads. My mom, her mom, they've kind of like left their computers. Now they don't use it anymore because the iPad is so intuitive, so easy and it does what you need it to do. Innovation crazy. He innovated with cloud computing, with icloud having everything synced with itunes, all your devices, all your files. He really made cloud computing accessible to people. And yes, then other things spun off like Google Drive and Dropbox and all this other stuff. But Apple was the innovator, so to say the least. Jobs really focused on making his mark, having a legacy, changing the world in all these different areas. And he accomplished that with flying colors. Yes, he was not perfect.

He.

Yes, he had his flaws. Yes, in a lot of ways you might think this guy is a little bit loony, but I always say I like a little crazy in my friends. I like somebody who's just a little bit, you know, different, that he thinks differently. She has a different perspective on things. It takes somebody like that to move the needle, to change things in the world, question things. I absolutely love this book. Highly, highly recommend you pick it up. If you feel like, you know the paperback version or the Kindle version is too long to read, I recommend you check out audible.com, we talk about them all the time. They were a sponsor on the show at one time so you can get a free book from them if you go to audible.com mba and this book is about 22 hours on audible. But it's a great listen, great narrator, you'll love it. Thank you so much for listening to the hundred dollar MBA show. If you're new to the show, make sure you check out our website and start building your business with our free seven day course or seven part course on idea validation. To nail your business idea, just go to100mba.net free course. Alright, that's it for me today guys. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the things that Steve Jobs himself admits that he was neglectful of is his health. He just didn't prioritize his health. Fortunately, he did die of cancer. It was very sad at the end of the book when they go through, you know, some of the struggles he had with his health and some of these things could have been avoided if he was a little bit more careful, if he paid attention, if he went to the doctor when the doctor told him come back or you know, done the things that his physician asked him to do. But his drive was so incredible that he just didn't see it as a priority. He just believed he'll be okay. And unfortunately his health suffered and it was a big reminder for me, as I was towards the end of the book, that I need to prioritize my health. I need to make sure that I am exercising, I am eating well. You know, I've really improved this last year, but I can do so much more. And of course, gotta keep your stress levels in check. Something we all can work on. All right, I'll check you in the next episode. Thank you for listening. Take care.

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