aia2015 {8 Essential Lessons from This Meeting Led by a Yourg Steve Jos | Inc.com 8 Essential Lessons from This Meeting Led by a Young Steve Jobs At31 years old, Steve Jobs left Apple and started NeXT. Here's an inside look at a company meeting, and what you can learn from it. IMAGE: Getty Images Brilliant, Passionate. Overbearing. Impatient. Steve Jobs' management style has been described in many ways, both positive and negative. Love him or hate him, there's no denying what he accomplished: Within a short time, he built the most successful company on the planet. Before that, though, Jobs was actually forced out of Apple (in 1985). A few months later, he founded another company. This startup, appropriately named NeXT, focused on producing high-powered computers for the higher education industry. A taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 18cvs sera Lessons rom Ths Meeting Lady a Yury Ste des | cm talented team left secure positions at Apple and followed Jobs to his new endeavor— evidence of how much people believed in him. The following video shows excerpts of a company retreat that Jobs orchestrated during the first three months of the company. And it's fascinating. The lessons for entrepreneurs are plentiful. I've picked out 8 that | feel are noteworthy. (I've also included the time frame from the video in parentheses.) Here they are: 1. Show your passion. (3:46) Jobs was well known as an excellent presenter, and his skills are on full display in his introductory speech. He uses repetition well. He's enthusiastic. He's natural, But most important, he believes what he's saying, and he's not afraid to put himself out there. Ifyou don't get passionate about your idea, no one else will. 2. Focus on creating value. (4:50) Jobs: We're doing this because we have a passion about it...because we really care about the higher educational process. Not because we want to make a buck. As an entrepreneur, there's no greater feeling than providing a product or service that people feel will make their life better. 3. Challenge your team. (6:15) taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 20aeanis {Esser Lenser om Tis Mating Lec a Yourg Steve Jobe | cam Throughout the video, Jobs probes and challenges his people. He doesn't accept anything at face value. He wants to know why people feel the way they do. And often, he lets them know exactly why he disagrees. Yes, Jobs could be overbearing. But as Guy Kawasaki (who worked for Steve Jobs twice) put it: ‘if you ask an employee of Apple why they put up with the challenges of working there, they will tell you: Because Apple enables you to do the best work of your career." 4. Keep everyone on course. (6:53) Jobs: There needs to be someone who is the keeper and reiterater of the vision...A lot of times when you have to walk a thousand miles and you take the first step it looks like a long way, and it really helps if there's someone there saying ‘Well we're one step closer... The goal definitely exists; it's not just a mirage out there.’ As your company evolves, it's easy to lose sight of what's important. Culture shift is a danger. But it's your company. Don't compromise on things you believe in. It's what got Jobs kicked out of Apple in 1985, but it's also why they brought him back--and what made Apple such a success. 5. Define the right priorities. (7:26) ‘As the NeXT team discusses its priorities, you can witness Jobs' remarkable ability to focus on what's most important, and even more critical, to defend whyit's important. When team members challenge priority number one (keeping the price of the computer at $3,000), Jobs vehemently defends it: "They didn't say if you made it go three times faster we'd pay 4,000...They said, 'Go to 3,000 [or] forget it.’ That's their magic number...Nobody else says that they can do that...Whether itis or not, in reality, who knows. Whether it is or not in terms of their commitment to push us, we've established that." The team followed his lead, and price stayed priority number one. You know what's important, but can you prove whyit's important? If so, then your team will follow. 6. Know when to interrupt. (9:52) Amember of the team proceeds to goes on a rant. She goes on and on, and Jobs remains patient...at first. But as she continues, his patience runs out. He interrupts to taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 aesna2018 8 Essential Lessons from This Meeting Led by a Young Steve Jobs | Inc.com refocus. Many years ago, | sat in on a meeting where a senior member of the team talked for 20 minutes without interruption. We were all thinking the same thing, but nobody had the courage to speak up. Finally, another manager (who was new to the company) respectfully put an end to the speech, to everyone else's relief. | learned a lot from that episode. Be a good listener. Be patient. But know when you need to step in, and you'll save a lot of time and resources. 7. Learn from the past, but don't let it own you. (11:11) As one team member laments past failures, Jobs speaks up: don't want to hear ‘Just because we blew it last time, we're going to blow it this time... This is a window we've got...it's a wonderful window. Any great entrepreneur knows that failure is part of the process. The more you try, the more you fail--but success is out there. You've just got to find it. 8. Focus on the positive. (12:22) At the end of the weekend retreat, Jobs said the following: I find myself making lists of things we don't know, and then, | remember that our company's 90 days old. And | look back to all the things we do know. And it's really phenomenal how far we've come in 90 days. When you have a long road ahead of you, it can be intimidating to focus on what's left. There will always be plenty to do. Remember to look back at what you've already accomplished, and that can give you the motivation you need to move forward. Those are eight points | felt were valuable. What about you? Make sure to comment or share the conversation. You can also tweet to me @justinjbariso. PUBLISHED ON: MAR 13, 2015 RECOMMENDED VIDEOS Ui r A tepzn in coms barso8-esenalessone-tan-the-meetng ety 2 yung steve obs mI idsf1002 aesna2018 8 Essential Lessons from This Meeting Led by a Young Steve Jobs | Inc.com The Making of Inc.'s Pay Close Attention to A Platform for Succe: Jessica Alba Cover Story the Man Behind TOMS Behind the Rise of Shoes Global Crowdfunding Company Kickstarte: To Build a Cult Following, Look No Further Than Pi Day Got a semi-crazy idea, and the need to convince huge numbers of people to adopt it? Advocates for Pi Day are way ahead of you. fa Pr RnereT Wren ena If you're a mathematician, physicist, or engineer, you've probably already heard of Pi Day. If you haven't, you would be surprised by how many people have. Pi Day--a celebration of the number pi, or roughly 3.14159--seems like something only for geeks, but it's also a great example of how an unlikely idea can wheedle its way into the status quo. Think about it: The founders of Pi Day have taken something only a few people ever taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 sewane {Essential Lessons fom This Meeting Les by a Youry Steve Jobs| In. com think about, and even fewer care about, and turned it into a phenomenon that's celebrated by thousands. Pi Day has also garnered its own resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives (and let's face it, those people can't agree on anything) and has been featured in news outlets from USA Todayto NPR. Granted, Pi Day was started sort of by accident. Larry Shaw, a scientist at the San Francisco Exploratorium, just put out pie for some of the staff on March 14, 1988. The next year, some museum visitors noticed and asked what was going on. Pi Day got bigger--and weirder--from there. If you're starting with just the germ of an idea and need to convince huge swaths of people to adopt it, there's a lot you can learn from Pi Day. Start with something real. (But it can be absolutely anything.) Pi Day celebrates a number. Given that the big holidays are either religious or historical in nature, this is a pretty serious handicap. Pi is special: It occurs repeatedly throughout geometry, but also, says Ron Hipschman, a scientist at the Exploratorium, "anytime you have cycles, frequencies, or anything that’s rotating. It’s in tons of different places." Pi has been calculated to 10 trillion digits, and counting. But still. In the end, it's 3.14, or thereabouts. Capitalize on serendipity. Pi Day has a few things going for it. For one, it happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday. That's a nice coincidence, although it hasn't really paid off, other than giving a boost to Pi Day celebrations in Princeton, New Jersey, Einstein's longtime home. More important: Pi sounds like pie. That's awesome. Plus, pie is circular, and piis all about circles. Americans may not like math much, but pie? Absolutely. The Exploratorium serves free pie on Pi Day--1,500 slices last year--but they're not the only ones. The American Pie Council has gotten into the act, publishing a Pi Day pamphlet with both math problems and recipes. Some bakeries and pizza shops are offering pies for $3.14, or pies that can be eaten in three-and-a-bit bites. Make it family-friendly. Obviously, there are rules, both legal and ethical, that restrict marketing to children. That's how it should be. But if there's something about your idea that can appeal to the entire family, not just to adults, go for it. if your idea has any redeeming value whatsoever, and kids are excited about it, the parents will be excited just to see their kids excited. It's easy to dismiss the Exploratorium's Pi Day celebration as silly. A Pi Procession taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 eecvs sera Lessons rom Ths Meeting Lady a Yury Ste des | cm begins on 3/14 at 1:59. Everyone carries a single digit of pi, parades to music written to pi, and ends up at the museum's Pi Shrine, which they circle-you guessed it~-3.14 times. Then they sing happy birthday to Albert Einstein. There is pi-lish (a form of constrained writing designed to help with the memorization of pi) and piku (Haiku written in honor of pi). Keep laughing. No one at the Exploratorium minds, | guarantee you. Last year, they demonstrated the concept of pi with a big diagram of a pizza and let kids throw their own pi(e) crusts. Most parents had probably never seen their kids have this much fun with math, ever. And people get way, way into it. Are you looking for evangelists for your company? The super-users? Pi Day's done it. "People show up in their favorite pi T-shirts," says Lori Lambertson, who works in the Exploratorium's teacher institute. "One woman made a skirt with pi symbols all over it. There's a couple that comes almost every year who had a baby named Pi five years ago. They'd bring baby Pi.” Who knows what they'll do next year, when the date will read 3/14/15--the first five digits of pi. Also: Admission to the Exploratorium is free on Pi Day. Embrace the competition. All this fuss about pi has, not surprisingly, brought attention to those who think that a different number--tau--should get more of the spotlight. Tau is two times pi, but really, it's more accurate to say pi is half-tau, says Michael Hartl, a former physics instructor with Caltech, creator of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, author of "The Tau Manifesto," and co-founder of a self-publishing platform called Softcover. "Because it involves dividing by the diameter, pi isn't the most natural choice for the circle constant," Hartl says. "It's just that it's easier to measure the diameter than the radius, but a circle is defined by its radius." Hartl says he celebrates Pi Day “ironically, as Half-Tau Day." Hipschman is non-plussed, saying the Exploratorium used to celebrate 2Pi Day (June 28) and even 3Pi Day (September 42, or, in other words, October 12). "We invite Michael to come to Pi Day if he wishes," says Hipschman. "We'll even celebrate 2Pi with him. How's that?" And don't forget the pie. No discussion of Pi Day would be complete without a pie recipe. Barry Schuler, a much more knowledgeable cook than |, and managing director at venture fund DFJ Growth, recommends this version of tarte tatin. Tarte tatin may not technically be pie, but if you divide its circumference by its diameter you'll still get about 3.14. taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 78ana2015 {8 Essential Lessons from This Meeting Led by a Yourg Steve Jos | Inc.com That's good enough for me. Thank you, Barry, and happy eating. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS LH! Ml The Making of Inc.'s Pay Close Attention to Jessica Alba Cover Story the Man Behind TOMS taipstuww.ne comustin bariso@-essertal-lessors-ram-tNs- meeting ed-by-a-young steve obs himI?eid=st01002 PUBLISHED ON: MAR 14, 2014 APlatform for Succe: Behind the Rise of Global Crowdfunding Company Kickstarte: ae