Have Confidence in Your Vision - Book Club #14: "Steve Jobs"
Hey everyone! It's been a while since the last book club post. I've been getting into biographies a lot more and Walter Isaacson is one of my favorite writers. His ability to encompass you in a story about someone's life is second-to-none and I highly recommend reading any of his books.
Learning about Steve Jobs has been really eye-opening. It's obvious that he was troubled emotionally and socially, but he managed to cultivate a lot of essential skills that he would need to build his future - and our future - with Apple II personal computer and eventually the iPod.
One of these skills was his ability to get the people around him to do incredible things that they never would've imagined possible. He was known as a "hard-ass" to many, but that's because he held people to a higher standard than what they held themselves at. He truly believed that if you set your mind to it, you can do anything.
Current Book & Quotes From: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
To illustrate this skill, Isaacson dives into a story about one of Jobs's close friends - Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes was living with a religious cult in San Francisco that had asked her to cut ties with all her past friends. Jobs wasn't siding with this cult and showed up to the house one day in his Ford Ranchero and demanded that she come with him to an apple farm.
"Even more brazenly, he said she would have to drive part of the way, even though she didn't know how to use the stick shift."
A normal person would probably just suck up the fact that their friend couldn't drive stick and do it themselves. Jobs had a different idea:
"Once we got on the open road, he made me get behind the wheel, and he shifted the car until we got up to 55 miles per hour," she recalled. "Then he puts on a tape of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, lays his head in my lap, and goes to sleep. He had the attitude that he could do anything, and therefore so can you. He put his life in my hands. So that made me do something I didn't think I could do."
This last bit that Holmes says at the end of this story is really vital to understanding how Jobs's mind operated and how he viewed the world, his employees and his company as a whole:
"If you trust him, you can do things," Holmes said. "If he's decided that something should happen, then he's just going to make it happen."
I really like this approach to leadership and I think everyone should mull it over: If you want to achieve something with a group of people, give them responsibility and instill your confidence in them. Tell them that this is possible and they don't have any other option but to make it a reality. If Jobs didn't exude this trait, we likely would be living in a much different world - one that may not have iPods, tiny yet powerful personal computers, and iPhones.
Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!
Have you ever been in a situation that required unwavering confidence in the end result? How did others react when you were trying to achieve the result? Do you think Jobs's method of giving someone responsibility and confidence could've helped achieve it?
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below and I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
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I've gone for things in life with full confidence even when I've face failure, most people react really positive and make me feel better that I took the leap. Even my own mom, who's a pretty tough cookie, makes me feel really good about the things I have tried in life even when I haven't the desired results.
Nice ..
Yes, we must be confident of ourselves, this is the basis for doing anything correctly
Well done .. great post
it was a delight to read the full article. i am going to get my hands on his biography booksoon
Thanks! Yes, I highly recommend reading the book and all other Isaacson biographies, they are true works of art!
I think it comes down to threshold anxiety and fear of failing. Both of these things can be tackled by taking that first step. Find something worth doing, take the step to cross the threshold and then make it happen. Learn to fail your way to victory like everyone else has swho has achieved anything.
Maybe Jobs is just giving a little shove so that the first step is taken, and showing the confidence so they can borrow his til they develop their own.
Books are just words but they transform into thoughts that will dictate your actions. Thanks for sharing those words dood.
Yes, the first step is always the hardest and it can often be hard to get those around you to trust you enough to take it! I love that - failing is the key to learning, but many people choose not to accept that fact.
I really love your take on that - Jobs was giving people a shove to take the first step and he didn't leave people hanging, he supported them with all of his heart and believed that they could achieve the impossible just like he could!
That's beautiful and thank you for sharing your thoughts and words, they are amazingly beneficial to myself and to others!
Steve Jobs is someone I still admire till date especially after listening to his commencement speech at Stanford university some years back.
In the speech he talked about believing in a thing and pushing forward to achieve it. The keyword there is believe. Not just thinking or imagining but believing in it even when it's still experimental. I think that attitude was what brought most of his innovations.
Now to the QOTD, unwavering confidence is what drives me everywhere I go. My life has been about that. I combine my thinking and my instinct together to make a choice and when I make that choice, I believe in it. Look at Steemit for instance, when I was informed about this, I took ten days to read all about it and my instinct told me it's the right choice. So, I registered.
The day I registered, I told about 30 of my friends to register too. But then, we came in and it wasn't as easy as we thought. The rest gave us long ago but am still holding on cause an confidence I'll swim with the tides. And so far, am not doing badly.
If you can't trust the skills of your partners and workers, you won't go far in business or anything else. My former boss would just give me a task without instructions or guide, he believes in me and I won't want to disappoint him. So, while he's having beer or taking some cool sleep, am toiling the night to present the best cause I wouldn't want to disappoint him or myself. So back to the question, it's a yes straight.
I love that commencement speech and all his speeches for that matter! You could tell from the way he talked that he was a believer and a visionary! That's amazing and keep doing what you're doing - you researched something before diving in which makes you cautious but smart. Once you found that it was a great opportunity, you dove in. Once you dove in and things got tough, you didn't quit. This is exactly how Jobs approached his projects and his products. Things are not always transparent and easy and it shows amazing character to be able to endure when the going gets tough.
That boss did a great job then. You obviously have a strong personal drive and work ethic and that is what matters. Trust is the name of the game and if you can't trust anyone, you won't go very far in life. Thanks for sharing your experience and lessons @lordjames, this is really great stuff!
Ouch, I was just flowing with the words and didn't intend writing another post in your comment. Lol.
Hey, I'm happy you hit your stride and got into a flow state. You added a lot of value to this post and I'm sure a lot of others will agree that they got value out of your comment and experiences! Thanks for sharing!
I think this is one of the Super virtues upheld by great men. Sometimes Last month I decided to dig into who Elon Musk was after hearing about the launch of Falcon heavy. Before then I never knew who he was but decided to lool through a d what I saw was amazing. I realised that the man was a risk taker and a crazy thinker and if there was anything fascinating about him, it was the fact that all he needed to do was think about an idea and hw would go all out to bring that idia alive.
Now you said that one of Steve Jobs abilities was being able to get the people around him, perhaps those who worked for him, to do incredible things they never would have imagined. What so you expect when working with a man who belives human ability is limitless, the sane kind of mindset Elon Musk has that has brought him this far.
You also said that Steve Jobs believed that once you set your mind to doing anything, you can do absolutely anything. Also the same kind of mindset Elon Musk had with his big dreams which he has brought to life.
I think 4 things we should take home from these two great minds is
Elon Musk is also a great inspiration. He and Jobs share a lot of similarities, especially when it comes to management and big ideas. Hopefully Isaacson will write a biography of Musk one day! I'd love to read it!
Exactly, they both believed that they could achieve the impossible and if they could do it, then so could you - with the right motivation of course. Yes! If you set your mind to it, you can truly accomplish anything you desire in life!
This is amazing! I hope others read this and think the way that you are thinking @sistem! Thanks for sharing this!
This is great @khaleelkazi. Actually I never read a biography about Stephen jobs. The last Isaacson Biography was eye opening. I expect the same here.
As we are human we can't do everything. In Asian culture showing face is important. This has rubbed of on me. Last October was a period of teacher evaluation. I was sick and got worse when I had a bad reaction to medicine. I really wanted to teach my class but had to leave in the middle and call another teacher. I didn't want to do this. Later I realized if I told another teacher I needed help before hand then it would have been a lot better.
Thanks for introducing this topic my friend.
Thanks @mineopoly! Isaacson's biographies are always amazing and give a real glimpse into how the individual thought and acted. I understand how you felt, it can be really hard to pass things off to others - especially when you love what you do and take pride in your work. Trusting and believing in others is an essential skil in life and is what has made us as a species accomplish so many great things!
I've read this one couple of years back.
Remember him sleeping on Holmes lap and trusting life on her while she drove.
He loved Rebellious people and asked a candidate who applied for job at Apple this question.
Are you a virgin? Did you try LSD?
Imagine getting that question for a interview
Haha it's hilarious that you mention that, I literally just read that part this morning and laughed so hard. He also asked it to a class at Standford that he was giving a speech to - while sitting on top of a desk without shoes! 😂
Jobs can do some really strange things.
Cant believe he did that in a place like stanford :'D
Steve Jobs changed the world and he's still an inspiration to me. My favorite Job's quote:
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition"
I am with you @edupa! He has really impacted the way we live our lives each and every day and reading about his life is changing my perspective on the world! That's a phenomenal quote and really applicable to all of us - it's both courageous and honorable to follow your heart and intuition rather than the established "norms" that society throws at us. Thank you for sharing that!
I totally agree with you! Too bad he already left us, he was truly a genius.
Yup, I go back to this quote whenever I get scared of life, or thought if I made the right decision?
This actually made me think of my college, i'm a vet student and sometimes we spend the whole night by ourselves in the hospital with an animal that's not that well, we have like 3 vet students each night from different years, but no actual veterinarian, maybe they are just giving us responsability so that we have more confidence in ourselves in the future...
Might add this book too to my to read list... Never actually cared that much for the guy, all the apple stuff make me mad, they are way to expensive for what they do, they just provide "status" to the person that buys them, status isn't something you can buy, it's something that you build with hard work and knowledge...
That’s a phenomenal example! You’re right, maybe it’s a test. It is a really great book, I highly recommend it, I’m about half way through it myself. The apple stuff can be expensive, I agree that it has a lot to do with status but I also think it has to do with the apps and “ecosystem” as it’s called. The ecosystem refers to having a lot of apple products and having friends who have lots of apple products - it creates a network effect that really benefits the user for having multiple apple products rather than windows or android. Things like airplay, handoff, etc. make my life a lot easier, but I do hate the price tag for all this. Thanks for sharing!