What i learned from Steve Jobs: It's all about details
After I’ve seen Guy Kawasaki´s talk at TEDxHarkerSchool, I thought about what I have learned from Steve Jobs. When i began studying I was no fan of apple computers, because they where too expensive and didn’t have enough power for Film & 3D. But when apple changed their infrastructure to Intel, they where fast and less expensive. At this time i had enough money to afford a consumer macbook and installed both, MacOS and Windows. So I had a direct comparison. But i took years until i understood the difference. When i was a PC Boy i had to invest some serious time to learn and handle the system. I had to make BackUps and reinstall Windows once or twice a year. And if there was a new Servicepack i had to do the same. It took me days. When i first had to reinstall my mac, because i had bought a bigger harddisk the whole process was done in 2 hours.
When i was a PC i thought i have to be smart, but when I became a mac, I understood that it is easier to work with smart people. I had more time to focus on thing that are important to me instead of focusing on what wasn’t important for PC-Programmers.
It’s all about details
- Select a file and press Spacebar -> See an instant preview
- Press Cmd + Space, type the first letters of the programm you wanna launch, Enter -> opens Searchbar, finds programm, opens program >> I don´t need to browse folders
- Drag a file over a folder and hold -> folder opens
- The system runs for weeks without a restart. Just close the MacBook to save energy
I could continue this list, but i hope you get the point. This are the small details that make your life easier. You don’t use this little features as the USP in a big advertisement Campaign, but they are still there and you miss them, when you are on a PC. Even worse, you think Microsoft hates people, because it would be so easy to adapt this little details.
What i learned from my personal experience is, people love details. If someone is talking enthusiastically about a product or service, they never mention the price or the gestalt, its always about the small details. You can feel if a company leaves enough space for their employees to care about the details or if they only do, what they have to do.
The 12 Lessons Guy Kawasaki Learned from Steve Jobs
- “Experts” are clueless
- “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” -Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
- “This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. This device is inherently of no value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876
- “There is no reason why anyone wold want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olsen, Founder, Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
- Customers cannot thell you what they need
- “They always want better, faster, cheaper status quo”
- Jump the next curve
- Don´t make it better, faster, more! Find the next thing
- Biggest challenges beget the best work
- Design counts
- Use big graphics and big fonts
- “Just do this and you will be better than 90%”
- Changing you mind is a sign of intelligence
- “Value” ≠ “price”
- A player hire A+ players
- B players hire C players
- C players hire D players
- …
- Real CEOs demo
- “If you can´t run your product, how can you run a company?”
- Real entrepreneurs ship
- Marketing = unique value
- matrix: Unique, Value
- –: Shit
- -+: Pricefight
- +-: Clown
- ++: Apple
- Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen