Steve Jobs — 10 Take-away Points for Business

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
Walter Isaacson

The biography of Steve Jobs offers enormous amounts of insights into business and entrepreneurship. Surprisingly enough, these are not, per se, covered in the curricula of your typical business schools. One would ponder why that is. After all, as of few days ago, Steve Jobs built the most valuable business in the world. That is not to say that business schools do not honour his achievements (for the most part they do), but somehow they rather inconspicuously seem to use him for their own ends i.e., exemplify what they already lecture. So here are my ten take-away points from Steve Jobs’ biography that as obvious as they may appear are not what you will usually hear in a typical marketing class. There is a little bit of strategy, a little bit of vision, but, as you might have imagined, mostly it is all about the product.

1. Push for uncompromised simplicity in product design.
2. Release the product only when you are perfectly happy with it.
3. Aim to build an organisation that will outlive you.
4. Make products that you and your friends would love to use.
5. Employ only “A-players”.
6. In a product’s design emphasize the most important feature.
7. Focus on the features that make a real difference for the customer.
8. Make your “insanely great” products affordable.
9. Control the complete customer experience.
10. Use one product to drive the sales of others.

AMAZON: Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

40 words you will never use vol. 2

Second edition of the compilation of words that most of us either never use or straight up don't know. Coming from my literary wanderings of the past 6 months here is 40 words you will never use volume two.

Impervious ● Sagacious ● Fornicate ● Excrescence ● Aberration ● Insouciance ● Provenance ● Dilapidated ● Confounding ● Conspicuous ● Ramification ● Disavowal ● Transience ● Disparagement ● Onerous ● Recalcitrant ● Outre ● Implacable ● Comeuppance ● Confluence ● Ephemeral ● Bequeath ● Indignation ● Incestuous ● Conduit ● Transcendent ● Connivance ● Heinous ● Indefatigable ● Obsequious ● Obeisance ● Petulant ● Egregious ● Sycophancy ● Volubility ● Insatiable ● Unruliness ● Effeminacy ● Vituperative ● Adamant

Definitions after the break.

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40 words that you will never use

Whenever I’m reading and I come across a cool sounding word I didn’t know, I try to write it down. Here is a selection of the most interesting ones coming from the notes I made in the past 12 months. Funnily enough, I still have no idea what most of them mean. Come to think about it, should we really bother?

Precarious ● Implore ● Irascible ● Predicament ● Providence ● Assuage ● Furtive ● Drubbing ● Tempestuous ● Usurpation ● Castigated ● Febrile ● Haranguing ● Delineation ● Rudimentary ● Insipid ● Inebriated ● Germane ● Concision ● Elucidate ● Demarcate ● Inexorable ● Salubrious ● Ambivalence ● Steadfastness ● Newfangled ● Obsequious ● Scrupulous ● Pernicious ● Compulsion ● Extenuation ● Refractory ● Laudatory ● Corroborate ● Precipitate ● Nebulous ● Imperceptible ● Concomitant ● Condescending ● Tendentious

In case you are wondering, descriptions after the break.

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Advanced Selling Strategies

Straight to the point

One million times I’ve seen ads proudly boasting about proven formulas and guaranteed results. So naturally, when I saw the cover page of the book Advanced Selling Strategies by Brian Tracy I was little sceptic when I read “The proven system of sales ideas, methods and techniques used by top salespeople everywhere” written on the front cover. But there was another thing that caught my attention, too — a perfect five star rating on Amazon! Interesting, I thought, and soon afterwards I was filling in my credit card details...

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Exams are on, baby!

It’s finals time. My course at university is drawing to a close, and I must say it is tough. Had two exams already - Managing Business Organisations and Business Strategy - and, well, what can I say, we’ll see.

What’s left? Here is the list:

1. International Marketing - 29 April
2. Social Organisations of Organisations - 1 May
3. International Trade and Finance Law - 7 May
4. Marketing Communications - 11 May
5. Consumer Behaviour for Marketing - 12 May
6. Approaches to E-business - 14 May

When I first realised I am going to have 8 exams I was like ‘!@£$%^*’!!! Now, after having sat two most difficult ones I am trying to have fun with it, I mean this is my topic area after all. Well, we’ll see how it goes.

Favourite pastime: books

Meanwhile I finished the Warren Buffett book. I am a fan, that’s all I am going to say at this stage.

Now I’m reading 'Napoleon: The Path to Power' by an Australian author Philip Dwyer, one of the two books (along with De Oratore by Cicero) I didn’t manage to complete last summer (in large part courtesy to the massive Buffett biography). So far it is an amazing read. I mean Napoleon is such a fascinating character, you have to love him.

Napoleon: Path to Power
Philip Dwyer

Jogging along the Thames

What else? I haven't been to the gym for like a month now, in stead I started jogging along the Thames. I do that whenever I can and I must say it is way more relaxing and a fun thing to do than going to the gym. I miss Soho Gyms, though.

AMAZON: Napoleon: The Path to Power

The Genie of Warren Buffett

I have been reading this book, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. It is the biography of Warren Buffett, in my opinion, the greatest investor of all time. A hefty read — over 800 pages — but well worth it. I’m interested in investing so the book is a great resource of ideas. 

The Snowball
Alice Schroeder

But investing is only one side of the book. The other is, as suggested by the title, the business of life. And as a young and very inexperienced in life man I must say this side of the book has had the biggest impact on me. Just recently I have been going through another chapter and I came across a fascinating passage. The passage consisted almost entirely of a direct quote from Warren Buffett. This quote I want to share today...

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The Third Step: "Shouldn’t Have Club"

As said earlier, this summer I implemented the “Three Step Personal Development Plan”. So far, I described the First and the Second steps of that plan. Because of my holiday, and subsequent departure to London I did not tell the final piece of the story. Well, now, as the summer is coming to an end (21st of September is the last day of summer, theoretically of course - because in practice it has long been over!) I feel that it's about time to do so.

Go for it!

The Third Step then. Join the “I Shouldn’t Have” club says Jeffrey J. Fox, author of the book How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization. What does it mean? To cut the story short: “go for it”!

Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, we do not do things we would like to do. Subsequently in these situations we never know what would happen if we actually did something. We often then come to regret what we didn’t do – we join the “I Should Have” club! The author of the book argues to the exact opposite – join the “I Shouldn’t Have” club and not only you will be spared this hopeless feeling but also most of the time you will achieve something.

Really, it is hard for me to illustrate the powerful point that Jeffrey J. Fox makes in his book without quoting the author himself. But because I do not have it at hand I refer you to the book itself and Fox’s excellent explanation of the concept for better understanding.

Ready to go for it in Monaco

A simple question, a plain answer

In the meantime, try to answer a simple question: what would you rather see, a football match with plenty of shots on goal and two actual goals or a one with equal amount of goals but no shots at all besides that? I think the answer is pretty clear! Even if we miss, it is much more exciting to just try!

So this is the concept that I introduced to my life this summer and tried to execute it in as many situations as possible. For example, I talked to people that I met (in the school, in the gym or in a club) that I would not normally talk to. I also did things I would not normally do, such as taking dance classes. Even though for the individual examples I find it hard to see the direct benefit towards my personal development, from the perspective of time, I can see the cumulative benefit it had on me. I became more self-confident (not overconfident!) and can take decisions more easily. I also learnt not to be bothered with failures (which does not mean forgetting about them!), because all in all they are an inevitable part of life, why not simply accept them?

Moral of the story

Moral of the story is that it is much more exciting to give things a try. But if you join the “I Shouldn’t Have” club you will not only have more fun, but also you will increase your odds for success. You will fail at times, but failures happen anyway, so get over it and go for it!

The First Step

This summer I thought it was time to get to know myself better. In the two and a half years since I left home, and particularly in the last twelve months I've been constantly on the move. I came across new cultures, people and customs. It was great to experience it all, but in the end it was a bit too much. Why? Well, inevitably being exposed to so much in such a short time left a major footprint on my personality. In other words, I simply changed. However, being busy jumping from one spot to another, I was left with little time to take note of these changes and got a bit lost. I became confused because I didn’t know how to lead my life. Particularly, I wanted to know, what is the right balance between work and leisure in life.

The wanderer above the sea of fog
Caspar David Friedrich

Mom, I'm staying at home this time!

Yes, instead of pursuing yet another adventure, I thought, this summer it was time to sit back, relax and contemplate. Primarily, I thought the best way to do this would be through reading biographies of men that had managed to make history as great leaders. This way, I would be able to see better how to lead my life to fulfil my ambitions. I also decided to go through some essential literature on the subjects that interest me professionally, in order to find out what I really want to do in life.

I made the following list of essential reading:

• Caesar: Life of a Colossus – Adrian Goldsworthy

• Napoleon: The Path to Power – Philip Dwyer

• Cicero on the Ideal Orator (De Oratore) – Cicero

• Art of War – Sun Tzu

• Ogilvy On Advertising – David Ogilvy

• The Four Pillars of Investing – William Bernstein

• The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing – Benjamin Graham

Why these books?

They are simply one of the best on these topics! Three of the books above ("Caesar", "Art of War" and “The Four Pillars”) I already wanted to read for a while. So, I set off with the excellent biography of Julius Caesar. I immediately became aware of my next target: Napoleon Bonaparte. To put their stories into perspective I choose to include in the list the well know Art of War by Sun Tzu. On top of this I thought it would be useful to read De Oratore by Cicero – the best orator in the history of the ancient Rome – which gives a deep insight into the art of oratory, yet another essential component of leadership, and so politics as well.

Following this I turned to my professional interests: marketing and finance. Ogilvy on Advertising, by the “father of advertising” David Ogilvy, is an interesting study of the subject and I want to find out more about it. Next, I chose to study investing. Here I began with the “Four Pillars” and plan to move on to “The Intelligent Investor”, by the greatest investment theorist EVER - Benjamin Graham (Warren Buffet’s professor and mentor!).

This is the first step

This is how I am trying to find out what I really want to do in life but also what really I can do. The next step is to learn more about life itself. How can I be happy while working hard to fulfil my ambitions? How can I get rid of some of my weaknesses, particularly within the sphere of social interaction? I will take on this subject in my next post.

The Way of the Samurai

“The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi has been in my hands for a couple of days now. There is already so much I want to say with respect to what the book talks about. Nevertheless, I will refrain from doing so until actually will have finished reading. What I will do, though, is share with you a couple of quotes from it. The following are extracts from the first part of the book - The Earth Scroll.

五輪書 宮本 武蔵

“With the science of martial arts of my individual school outlined above, by diligent practice day and night the mind is naturally broadened; (…) For people who want to learn my military science there are rules for learning the art:

1. Think of what is right and true.

2. Practice and cultivate the science.

3. Become acquainted with the arts.

4. Know the principles of the crafts.

5. Understand the harm and benefit in everything.

6. Learn to see everything accurately.

7. Become aware of what is not obvious.

8. Be careful even in small matters.

9. Do not do anything useless.

(…) Once you have learnt the principle, you should not be defeated even in individual combat against twenty or thirty opponents”.

“The science of martial arts is not just a matter of reading these writings. Taking what is written here personally, do not think you are reading or learning, and do not make up an imitation; taking the principles as if they were discovered from your own mind, identify with them constantly and work on them carefully”.

Cool, isn’t?

AMAZON: The Book of Five Rings