#8 Writemas: 3 Lessons from Steve Jobs' Biography

Last week, I finished Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson.

Isaacson portrays Jobs as a complex character with many paradoxes and personal contradictions.

For example, he was adopted and struggled with ‘rejection’, yet rejected his own daughter, Lisa Jobs.

Rejection plays an important role in Jobs’ life, making him intensely loyal but at the same time distrustful of people.

And for the first half of the book, the initial years he spent at Apple before he was ousted, he sounded like a petulant brat.

While there are many of Jobs’ traits I don’t want to emulate, here are 3 key lessons I took away from the book as I build Bloomstory.

Innovation and greatness are at the intersection of two fields

It is extremely difficult to be great at one thing.

It requires a lot of luck and extreme performance.

However, an easier way to be great is to be good at two things and work on the intersection.

Jobs created Apple and Pixar to lay at the intersection of art and technology, and his focus on that sweet spot led to their meteoric rise.

Never compromise on hiring

Jobs insisted on hiring only A-players. He knew, as well as many other great founders, that A-players only want to play with other A-players.

He explains it best in this video.

Know what you want and stick to it

Jobs’ focus was crystal clear on how he wanted things to look and be.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” — Steve Jobs

He was very clear on wanting two things: build great products and enduring companies.

Everything else was secondary.

Speak to you tomorrow,

Jason.