Steve Jobs, even though he isn’t with us anymore, has left a mark in this world, especially on those who want to go against the public flow, against the daily dose of orders, against the boring and monotonous work related ideas. The ideals of Steve Jobs have been the cornerstone for many aspiring Entrepreneurs.
He has always been a voice of the creative minded. Everything he did, he gave utmost importance to style. Be it his products, graphics, fonts or his way of organizing things, he did it all with style.
His thinking is that while giving preference to matter, if you neglect the concept of style, you will end up with efficient yet boring designs. And boring designs are a sore to the eye and thus they attract less attention. The classier the product looks, more readily it will be accepted by the masses.
Steve Jobs’ Business Lessons are words etched in gold and accepting them will bring you, as an entrepreneur, a lot of fortune. The following business lessons helped me reshape my entrepreneurial goals:
Lesson No. 1 – Mistakes Motivated Him Further
No one is immune to mistakes. Every company, successful or not makes a lot of mistakes. If you halt your idea’s progress after your first mistake, you will never commit a bigger mistake. The trick is to accept mistakes, quickly fix them and move forward. Mistakes will keep happening as you keep improving. They must be used as catalysts to rethink a strategy and better it.
“We make mistakes along the way, and we fix them as fast as we can.”
Lesson No. 2 – He Was a Very Flexible Decision Maker
Rigidity destroys your capability. Flexibility enhances it. You must not hesitate changing the course of your plan and making major changes to it. You can keep the plan aside and focus on another in order to complement your original plan and yield better results. If your change in plan makes your business better then go for it.
“At first we started with the iPad. But then I realized we could make a phone out of the touch screen technology we had developed, and we decided to go with that first and shelve the iPad until we got our breath back from the launch of the iPhone.”
Nearly 50% of Apple’s Income is through the iPhone.
Lesson No. 3 – He Always Believed in Shipping It
An Oracle will never tell you if your product or service will bring you success. The only way to know it is by launching it. The public is the answer to your concerns. If they like your product or service, they will definitely buy it. If they do not like it, they will ignore it. By this you will know if your efforts were worth it. Then again, every mistake leads to improvement.
“We focus on developing great products for people and they let us know how we are doing by voting with their wallet.”
Lesson No. 4 – He Never Tried to Please Everyone
Trying to please everyone leads to degradation of your potential and ultimately leads to failure. If your focus is on building few but great things, you can be a master at them and in the end people will accept what they get. If you want your products to be complemented by another party, choose one which is going upscale and is not a sheep to the market. This way your ideas can be built into great products.
“You can save a lot of time and energy if you choose the correct horses to ride.”
Lesson No. 5 – He Provided High Value and Charged High
If you want your status to be upped and your profile to be raised amongst the big-wigs, you need to gain it by selling your product and making a hit amongst the general public. To raise that status, you need to rate your product highly. People will go for them sooner or later.
“Price things aggressively and go for volume”
Lesson No. 6 – He Aimed At What Most People Didn’t
If you are a true Entrepreneur, you will hit upon an idea that will be deemed impossible by everyone. You will not gain support and will be discouraged even by those who think will encourage you. Your true potential comes to the fore when you go ahead with this impossible idea and establish it as a real life success.
“People are willing to pay for content on the Internet. iTunes is a success.”
An Entrepreneur is all about going against the flow, discarding the critics’ opinion, derive statistics by selling to the market and make you impossible idea into a reality. If anything, there is this conglomeration of ethics about Steve Jobs that makes him stand out.
• His will to never give up
• Learn from his mistakes
• Take back what was rightfully his
• Improve it through persistent application of better ideas
• And complement them with style, simplicity and excellence.
There is no better modern legend than Steve Jobs for you to be inspired from and build your own empire.