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Regardless of the nationality or the segment in which a leader acts, it is essential that he or she masters two major areas, the business itself in which he or she exercises leadership, and the management of image and people. But this is not enough.
In just 56 years of life, Steve Jobs was able to register his name in recent human history. In his lifetime, he co-founded Apple, revolutionizing several industries. From his story, one can learn the need to:
- have focus
One of Steve Jobs’ most important teachings is that more important than knowing what you want to do, is deciding what you don’t want to do. Walter Isaacson, author of the biography of Steve Jobs, wrote that the entrepreneur used to take the 100 most important employees of Apple on a retreat and on the last day he would ask them about the 10 things they should do next. After the group’s decision and watching the professionals discuss, he would cross off what he thought was unfeasible and define three things from the final list to put into practice. - Be simple
For Steve Jobs, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. So he thought of his products in such a way that they could be easily used by customers. In his words, “it takes a lot of effort to make something simple, to really understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions.” - Strive for Quality
In Jobs’ understanding, the most important thing was to keep the focus on quality. Therefore, as long as the quality of the prototypes did not meet his requirements, the product was not released.
