Good piece by Jim about Steve Jobs, and what kind of entrepreneur he was, entitled “Hitting the Sweet Spot.”
The intro:
There are, fundamentally, two subspecies of entrepreneur. One starts from the present, and visualizes the next logical step from where things are now. This type figures out how to make something better, cheaper, or more widely available, and manages to clear the financial, regulatory, and market barriers to getting it into the marketplace. The other visualizes a different world, one in which things are different and better from the way they are now, and then figures out what path of evolution brings us to that world, and, as the last step, what is the least ambitious step possible that will move things toward that goal.
Steve Jobs was one of the latter group, and one of the most successful of his time.
Do, please, RTWT.
He was also extremely rare among entrepreneurs in that he had an acute business sense in addition to a product sense. When Disney bought Pixar Jobs got on the Disney BoD.
I think this story was read in Forbes – but they were discussing leasing some ships for a new cruise service – and Jobs – along among the Board – finally convinced them to buy their own ships.
He had some spectacular flops – like Next Computers – but even that – their software developed lived on – the OS became the OS for the new Mac.
Mr. Jobs seems to have an uncanny ability to learn from his mistakes. He was quite the Anglospheric fox in that regard.
Great to see mention of America 3.0 in Jim’s byline!