#349 How Steve Jobs Kept Things Simple
52:29 Share

okay. So the book and we are talking about today is insanely simple. The obsession that drives apple's success, and there was written by can ago. This book is a little different from the books that you and I Normally talk about. IT is not a biography, but IT is a fascinating look into how IT was working with Steve jobs, because can signal was the ad agency creative director of the firm that Steve used when he was at next and then when he came back to apple to lead that turnaround. And so at this point made, I don't know, ten episodes on Steve jobs, I ve read as many books on him as I can find.

And yet there were stories in this book that I have found nowhere else, and is because can work with Steve intimately for over a decade, Steve had no problem calling can at midnight to debate a single word in the ad copy. And so one of the things that can notice that was different from the other clients said he had was that Steve IT steeves dedication to simplicity was almost religious in nature. And you would see that religious, like dedication to simplicity throughout the entire way that Steve ran is to the way he communicated internally with his employees, to the way he communicated externally to his potential customers, di organza team, to how he built his products.

And so can noticed that Steve had a toll to do this, and he calls IT a simple stick, which is one of my favorite story. This is the second or third time that i've read the book. And considering i've reread my highest all time, it's like the ten time I read the book.

And for some reason, I failed to make an episode on that before some rectifying that mistake here. But this simple stick, the reason I bring that up, because from the very first time mer of the book, you know, party eight years ago, something like that, this idea of the simple stick always stuck in my mind. So the simple stick is just a tool that Steve job used to keep his team from over, complicating things, if an idea is not to still down to its essence, Steve O D.

Reject IT. If an idea took a turn when he should have traveled in a straight line, Steve would reject IT. So an example that comes up over and over again in the book is if you made two different versions of anything, Steve would hit you with the simplistic until you simplify IT down to one.

An ad made many decades ago for with the macintosh, and IT said the tagline on the ad was describing the macintosh. An IT said that I was simply amazing and amazingly simple. Steve wanted able to make products that was simply amazing and amazingly simple.

And the simple stick was the tool that he used to make that happen. And so the main thesis behind this entire book, and why I wanted talk to you about IT, is that people prefer simplicity. Customers respond to IT, yet humans naturally overcomplicate things.

True simplicity that is applied consistently throughout your entire organization is extremely rare. Just think about every single business is you ever interact with. Most of the businesses, the products and services that we use that we buy would not be describe as a product of clear thinking and simplicity.

Keep in mind the time frame that we're talking, we're talking most of the book is about the time where Steve comes back to apple. Apple is losing money. The product line socks, they either had to turn IT around or die.

So I think one of the things is Steve realized in and a lot of history of gays, entrepreneurs realized that the simplicity actually scale. And so when I was reading this part of the book, I thought about sam walton. When I read, I read his autobiography ltl times.

The last time I made episode, I was up to thirty four. But he is a line in that book. He says, if you don't zero on reaux racy every so often, you will naturally build in layers.

You never set out to add bureaucracy. You get IT period without even knowing. So you always have to be looking to eliminate.

The simple stick was how Steve eliminated. Its source is a great line in sam walton autobots phy. That's by A A walmer executive. And it's a story about how sam is trying to use the simple sticks he's constantly questioning.

And that let me just read to says, I give you an example that drove sam crazy until we started doing something about IT. When merchandise came into the back of a store, IT was supposed be marked at the right Price and marked correctly on the spot. But because IT often wasn't getting done properly, we created positions called test scanners, people who go around the stores with hand held scanner, making sure everything is Price correctly.

There is another layer right there. And sam didn't ever visit store without asking if we really needed these folks. And I think that story is a great example that humans are, nature, very complicate things.

And it's the leader's job. The consequence question, do we actually need the additional layer? The more layers you have, the harder is the scale. So the simple stick is the tool. I want to go into detail on how Steve did this with.

The first thing I think is probably most important is the way he communicated have told in the past I think he's the clear thinker, the clear communicator of every single person I read about. And so Steve believe that blunt communication was effective. Direct communication is extremely simple.

So in every single book that have ever read about Steve jobs, the people that worked with him all say the exact same thing. He was very easy understand. If he thought something was great, he is going to tell you if he thought your work was shit.

That's one of his favorite words described. Poor work. If he thought your work was shit, he's going to tell you. In fact, the first meeting that Steve jobs had with the author can see, go rate Steve, goes out to me like your T, V work is great, and can say great and goes, but your print work is shit.

The reason this is important because if somebody is, is that direct with you? You know immediately what you need to do. Can you immediately what you need to do? Or okay, if I want to keep Steve as a client, my princess has improved.

Right now. Employees, like all other people, respond to clear communication. There is a book that i've read mottle times.

Think of the two pocket on a maybe the last time I did the pads on IT was abot one that episode called working with Steve jobs. IT is about this book called creative selection, which is written by kenko. Sanda can was a programmer who demand multiple times and work closely with Steve jobs.

I want to read this section from ken's book that is so excEllent. And if you haven't listen to epsom to eighty one, I would listen to IT after you get done with this one. And so he's describing how clear Steve communication was to his employees.

And this is what can say Steve was at the center of all circles. He made all of the important product decisions. That's hilarious because the amount of detail what he's paying attention tude that i'll get to in this book is exactly what can a country in the same here.

He made all the important product decisions from my standpoint as an individual programmer. Demoting to Steve was like visiting the oracle of delphi. The demo was my question, and Steve response was the answer.

While the pronouncements from the greek oracle often came in the form of confusing riddles, this was not true with Steve. Listen to this line. I D A double underlined, highlighted.

IT is so important, he was always easy to understand. He would either approve a demo or he would request to see something different next time. Whenever they reviewed a demo, he would say, often with highly detailed specificity, what he wanted to happen next.

He was always trying to ensure that the products was intuitive and straightforward, another word for simple, right as possible. And he was willing to invest his own time, effort and influence to see that they were in that example. Steve is doing that with his employee when he's saying to, can, hey, your TV work is great.

Your print stuff is shit. IT needs to get Better. He's doing the exact same thing with one of his vendors being blunt, being direct.

Is this the most simple form of communication? And I think one of the most important byproduct, ks, of this is that with clear communication, with the blunt communication that still used, everybody understood the standard's that he insisted they upheld so there's a great uh, video or link IT down below and this kind of andy Miller, i've watched this video, I don't know, fifty times. He sold his company to apple for two hundred and seventy five million dollars.

And then he moved the entire company from boston to kuper. Tino, I worked with Steve jobs, and he's describing this byproduct of the clear communication that Steve had with him in everybody around them. And andy said that you are aware of the consequences if you screw up.

And andy says that something sea would repeat to him was that, andy, you are a very complicated man. And that was not a compliment. A andy said that Steve s.

Whole world was solicit. He wanted everything boiled down to its essence. And he tells us one story again, this is IT just makes IT makes yourself this this direct communication, the blank communication.

I think I really, truly believe that makes you easy face. And so andy was daydreaming one time. He's sitting in a meeting with Steve jobs and tim tim cook and all these like high and executives.

I think there's like four to six um of like step's top team in the room and andy there and and's daydreams like how the hell did I get here? Like how did I wind up here? This is Steve jobs.

I cannot believe this is happening. And so Steve noticed that andy wasn't being intentional, so he asked him a question related to what they were talking about. Andy like, okay, andy, what do you think about this? And andy could answer.

And Steve said, you weren't paying attention where you and his acknowledge asn't going. Okay, if I ever notice that again, you won't be in the room and you won't be at apple. Think about that.

Do you think at the end of that exchange, was andy left? Like, I wonder, I wonder what what he meant by that. What should I do next? Now, you know, exactly.

Blood communication is simple. Again, I think this this part, that bunk communication, make sure standard easy to understand for others, it's very important. It's also not just a Steve jobs, nothing only person who did that.

So I obviously, no, I make all these episodes. Michael Jordan am kind of obsessed with his competitive of nature. And I was in watching the documentary, uh, the last stance and there was a couple things that Michael said that I think he shares in common with Steve jobs and actually took Green shots.

Of what mica is talking about. And so I want to compare when Michael came to the struggle balls in one hundred eighty four to when the job came back to apple in nineteen ninety. And so Michael, in the documentaries talking about why, you know, when they are winning championships, they're all all these new people coming and effort, the best one, the third temp, like, why are you so hard and your team mates? And he says, again, this is a very clear communication.

When I got here, we were shit in english gables, were a terrible, terrible team when he got there, and we got to elevate to being a championship quality team. This is a punchline. There are certain standards that you have to live by.

And when I saw that, and i'm reading this book i'm talking about, Michael jorn said, talking about can see was writing in this book, I thought of there is a skinning mike more. A lot of people describe him as the best venture capital of all time. Way before his adventure capital, he wrote his book called the little kingdom, how apple Steve jobs changed the world.

IT was published. The book is published before Steve jobs gets kicked out the first time. Make is a fantastic rider.

Transitions from being a journalist to there wants to be world class at that as well. But then, which most fascinating is, Michael updates the book. I think someone, maybe two thousand and two thousand and nine, I like that.

And he, the updated versions of version I read and now is called the return to little kingdom. I want to read this. Tell me this is not the exact same thing that Michael Jordan is talking about.

And Michael Morris is discussing the unparalleled story of apple, right? Michael Jordan said, heck, when I came to the bulls, when I got here, we were shit and we elevated to being a champion of quality team. And so therefore, no, you're coming in new to something we built.

So i'm going to insist that they're certain standards that you have to live by. Michael Jordan was a leader, the balls, just like Steve jobs, leader of apple. This is what mike more at said on the unparalleled story of apple.

This is why keep making podcast after podcast, reading book after book of Steve jobs. Why is this so important for united? A revisit is to talk about this, you know, every few weeks, every few months, at least on holly, a couple times year.

Because this is what mike more and said, many are familiar to reemergence of apple. They may not be as familiar with the fact that IT has few, if any, parallels. When did a founder ever returned to the company from which had been so really rejected to engineer turnaround as complete and spectacular as apples? While turn around are difficult in any circumstances, they are doubly difficult in a technology company.

IT is not too much of a stretch to say that c founded apple not once, but twice, and the second time he was alone. Steve jobs not complete that turnaround without Crystal clear communication. So this is also something that why it's also rare.

It's rare in like, let's say, the Normal population and probably extremely common in the population of the people that you and I study these world class entrepreneurs because most people don't want blank and communication because black communication creates conflict. That is why it's where there is a great line from jeff faces. So jeff s.

Is known for being very black communicator. Jeff b says, I think in he said he would take conflict over agreement every time because he believes that conflict produces a Better result. Most people don't want conflict.

Jeff faces didn't run from he isn't afraid of IT Steve jobs would agree he did not clearly do not run from conflict or from one communication and I think with Stephen, jeff both share in common. And again, jeff, i've done what I know seven episodes on on jeff. Stephen jeff had one thing in common, or they had bunch things comment, but one thing, above all, they put the quality of the work above being liked.

And this idea of bunny communication, this idea of being very easy innocence, not just when Steve was speaking to, it's also in his written materials. Well, so that is a great thing in the book that I want to read to. And it's about, you know, can make these ads.

And then he gets an email from apple's legal team and he says, I was surprised one day to get an email from the apple lawyers concerning a newspaper ad that was going to run in just three days. Steve jobs had already approved IT. Now apple's lawyers are saying that they had some problems with IT.

So doing my duty, I sent an email to Steve advising him that there was a wrench in the works, his own legal team. I asked Steve for his guidance. Just minutes after I hit the sand button, his reply landed in my inbox, fuck the lawyers.

So again, so far we have two examples of Steve communicating directly with can. One was they were having conversation and love your TV work. Your print work is shit candle media.

What's do now in email is saying, fockers, what do you think like kendover would do? Steve saying, run the add. And another very valuable consequence of this simplicity that he was able to run his business.

He ran his business as if there was little time to waste. He was like that. He was like a kid. Remember I, I told his story when he, whose nineteen roles, working for no ambush, no, no ambition of founder vati with Steve job mentor's like a decade old order, then Steve jobs, and he wrote entire book about what I was like. And his, I go, Steve had one speed go.

And I think the clerk communication help with that because you can't move fast if your communication isn't simple, easy to understand. So before I move on from the section, what is the opposite? If you really think about what is the opposite of blunt communication, what is the opposite of direct communication can makes the case.

And he picks a great word for this. He says that it's meandering communication. So I went to to the dictionary, and the definition of meandering and your plan to communication is communication that moves slowly, in no particular direction, with no clear purpose.

Communication that takes a turn instead of traveling in a straight line. If you rambled still would cut you off. If you move slow, he would fire you.

So that's Steve using simplicity in the way he communicated. Now another way he is simplicity, how we organize his team. So his favorite way to work is small groups of very smart people.

And in fact, he was speaking at a conference was the all things d conference shortly before he died. And you could see he clearly very sick. And he was talking about this in very early days.

I giving an example of when he was building the macintosh, when his image twenty years, and then right before he died, he says, we have zero committees. We are organized like a startup. One person is in charge of iphone O S, one person is in charge of mac hardware, one person is in charge of marking, one person is in charge of Operations.

We are organized like a start up with the biggest startup on the planet. And I think the main principal here is not only a simpler but if you think about this, the ultimate if the ultimate sion maker is involved in every step of the way, Steve would believe that the quality of the work increases is also, I think he's right about that. And I also think that just the way he like to work, in fact, as a line in the book, as a quote in the book, where Steve says, the way i'd like to work is where I touch everything.

One of my favorite maximums that you see that appears over over if you're analyze what's actually taking place in all books, are you and I are reading, talking about, is that actions, express party still shows you with his actions. Are we spend the time, what's important? So is a ton of examples on the book.

Steve did not believe in delegating marketing and advertising decision at all. This is not an exaggeration. Approved every single image that was using an add.

He would approve every single word. He would deliberate over the copy. This is when he is calling can at midnight to talk about a single word. The degree to which he did this cannot be understated.

IT didn't matter who was a ballboy in missouri or a full page ad in the washy journal, IT is not going out until he approves IT. And so there's no way you can work like this unless you have a very simplified structure. He hated what he called big company behavior.

And so let me give example. It's very common for executive CEO founders of joint companies. You have people filtering all kinds of things for you, right? But Steve put the quality, the product ove everything else, and then he says in another book, hey, I truly believe that the we're making the best products in the world. I want every single person to have in the world haven't access to an apple device, which is funny because the way are Priced. But his whole point was that to do that, we have to get world class, not only a building, we already build world class products, but we had to get world class at marketing.

And so i've remember when I read that for the first time, and did I think this is up to two or four, so a long time ago, know many, many years ago, and I remember the note I left myself that I was trying to like put into my own words, like, what is he saying here? And as I O, if you believe that your product will improve the life of your customer, then you have a moral obligation to get good at marketing. I believe that is what Steve jobs believe.

And yet in this book, there's an actually interesting idea for you, and I know how to do that. So the way I think about what the the the lesson is in the book is like, if this is important, you, it's one of your top priorities, right? Do not let other people filter for you.

And so Steve did something is very interesting. So obviously is got marketing people, most marketing and advertising team got outside ad agencies. He insisted on seeing the ads before his executives.

He didn't want them to filter what he saw because they could start guessing a, oh, you know, Steve on't like this. We don't need to show that. I want to me, so I don't want this filter at all. The ads are creatively advertising, which they go straight to me. Another way that was very fascinating.

Think about if you've been in these meetings, they like pitch their idea to you, like you have maybe the the the image of the demo of what the gna look like, maybe it's the video and they wanna set IT up. And then they like setting IT up and they marry to you. Before, and he's like, stop doing that and he has a great again, this is just simple, clear communication.

Are you going to be sitting next to me explaining these things when I see the ad in the newspaper? And the answer, of course not. And so if you I really think about like one of the the supporting characters of this book is the number one.

Steve was obsessed with trying to get as close. The number one is possible to talk more about than a little bit. But I was thinking about what he was saying was like, oh, the only thing more simple than one is zero and by what's happening in these meanings, like he zero words, he wants to see IT, just like a potential customer would see IT.

And how this is related to this idea that Steve want to be organize like a startup. He just wanted these small groups of smart people are dedicated to a single thing. Have one top can talk about the amount of people in a meeting where they are literally deciding what what apple adds the public is.

Macy, like there's a handful of people, he talked about other companies in the book where he'll count. There were like thirty two people in the room. Steve job would never allow that. Their stories in the book war.

If he notices A, A, A spectator to a meeting that is not essential, he will ask them why you here, and this is not a good response, will he'll make them leave? Simplicity's best friend is small groups of smart people. So he did this in the beginning of his career, so he's committed to small group.

Smart people sometimes included designing the team within constraint. So when he was building the first market, now she's in his choice. He limited the team to one hundred people. If you wanted to add a person, if you say, hey, we need, you know, this persons help you act. You first have to find the person that was unnecessary and replace them.

And then i'm really glad that I reread this book after I just read the book on how that because I didn't understand the first time through without that additional context, that there's another benefit when IT comes to just organizing your entire team or company into these small group of smart people because if you're doing something new and creative, creativity is not a process. It's it's not scripted and something that Steve had in common with what disney was. They were both comfortable with an absence of process.

And so I want to read this extra two from the book that I just get on up at three forty seven, you know, the entire book about how did what disney build what he considered masterpiece, which is diving. And so you have a guy working for what doesn't said. You ask the question, what was the process like? I kind of laugh because process is an organized way of doing things.

I have to remind you, doing the world period of designing disneyland, we didn't have processes. We just did. The work process came later.

All of these things have never been done before what had gathered up. All these people had never designed a theme park. They had never designed a dazzling.

So we're in the same boat at one time, and we figure out what to do and how to do IT on the fly as we go along, and not even discuss plans, timing or anything. We just worked and what, just walked around and made suggestions, that idea where watches, walking around and making suggestions. If you read all these works on sea jobs, very so summer, there is an absence of process.

Steve, main suggestions, changes are made, then Steve review the changes and make more suggestions while doing. And Steve jobs both trusted their own taste and judgment. So another great reason to read a spoke too is like i'm not saying that Steve taste and judgment were perfect in this book.

You have one of undoubted one of the greate entrepreneurs to ever do IT. The book is full of bad ideas coming from Steve. Let me give example.

So can go hit the auto. He is one that came up with the name imac. And thank god he did because you know what Steve anted to call the imac before was called imac.

He wanted to call the imac mac man. One of Steve's heroes was the founder of SONY, a cum era. And one of the most successful SONY products of all time are the walkman or was the walkman? And so Steve, like, go, okay, we can call hours of the mac man. And if that idea wasn't in this book, you would never believe that Steve jobs would come up with such a terrible product. Me, there's crazy does not sound like to at all.

But he was seriously considered he his idea was like, hey, what if I said at the time they were charging for Operating system upgrades that apple just gives you for free now and so you, you know, pay nine nine dollars or hundred and twenty nine dollars, something that to upgrade the Operating system on your mac and he's OK. What if we gave IT away for free and we just an add supported version of macos, and instead of buying them, you can get up for free. But you have to watch an ad before every time before you use your computer.

What that doesn't sound like, Steve jobs, right? And thankfully, both of those, you know, ideas, Steve, change is mine. And again, just this constant inertion.

Let's surrounding myself with these moggs's smart people. Let's make suggestions. Let's make changes. And over time, our products will improve. okay. So I want to move on to the third thing I wanted talk about, which is I mentioned earlier that the number one is like the supporting actor, the supporting cast in this book.

And there's a line, the first time the book I ve never forgot about this says the further you get away from one, the more complexity that you invite in. And so I want to talk about their advertising first, but I think this applies to more than just add. So your goal is a single idea expressed clearly.

And for advertising, you really should try to pick just one message per add. And so this is another example where they're going over the idea for ads, for a new apple product. And Steve s like, well, there's five things they do really well.

We should mention all five things in the ad and the founder of the advertising agency and a like a close front of Steve jobs, like three decades getting lean cloud. He did the demonstration of the difference in a good ad and and A A bad add. So league crumbled up a piece of paper into a ball and threw a Steve and asked them to catch her.

And Steve was able to, and he and lee says, that is a good add. Then he crumbled up five pieces of paper into little balls and drew them all towards Steve at the same time and ask them to catch him. And Steve didn't catch anything.

And lee said, that is a bad ad. And this point was that the more things that you ask people to focus on, the less that they remember. So I remember reading James days autopsy.

The first time I had since the last time was hundred, if you listen. But he says, something also is like you simply cannot make sure messages when selling something new, a consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two or even several. So he talks about, in the bwin, dyson's first product is that python onic vacuum cleaner.

He was he. That was the word best vacation cleaner at a by product of the product made. Though added benefit was affected, the vacuum cleaner could also be used as a dry cleaner for your clothes.

James never, never mention that in his ads, he let the customer discover that used later on, because in the marketing, in the vacuum aner, he learned what lee cloud had had learned as well. Your goal is a single message, single idea expressed clearly, one message per ad. So then you have this principle, the further you get away from one, the more complex to you invite for products.

And IT compares the Operating system upgrades of apple and windows. So at this time, apple offered the Operating system letter d as an upgrade. IT had one version and one Price.

Microsoft was offering windows vista. At this time, IT had four versions, all with different features and all the different Prices. And it's funny to see the difference today because this book is fifteen years old.

I just saw that there's four different versions of the apple pencil. There is no way Steve wood like that. Ah there's another greater in the book where he's got a team there at the time.

I'm trying to figure, okay, you have this file on your computer from eye movie, you have this home movie you want to put into physical form when to make IT into like a DVD. And so his team comes up with like this, this complicated presentation. He just ignores the presentation, walks over to the White board and he searched, drawing out.

He says, this is the application. It's got one window. You drag the video into the window, and then he has one button.

M, again, you get away from one, the more production that one button says burn, and then he says, that's IT. That is what we're going to make. And then he walked out of the room after sea jobs eye, john y.

Eve gave this great interview with value fair. He says something i'll never forget. I've mentioned a multiple times, he said that Steve was the most remarkably focused person he ever knew.

So he see would even do this when he would device to give either the direction and nine in vice. He made a Mandate, the direction he gave his advertising. He, he is good son.

For every single quarter, we're gonna have a single focus. So whatever product are sure that we are focused on, we're gonna focus on that for the entire quarter. It's going to be mentioned in every ad, and it's gona be the main thing you see when you go to apple 点 com。

Steve's most important concern was making things easier for costers. And so this entire thing, when you think about the third section, works like focus on one. The further you get away from one, the more complexity you invite in.

There's two things I think Steve understood you instinctively, that when you attempt to communicate more than one thing, you are dividing your audiences attention. And the reason I think that that there was an instinctual thing to him is because he applied that to both internally, so like his teammates, his employees and externally to his ads and his marketing. This idea, when you attempt to communicate more than one thing, you are dividing your audiences attentions.

Very important. Number two, people find more words confusing. I love to read.

I love to read problem you, as you know how? Problem more than you know, ninety nine percent of people, the planet, whatever that number is IT drives me batch shit crazy when I read an eight hundred page book. And is very common.

You in eight hundred page book, when that book should be in four hundred, three hundred pages, editing your thinking is an active service and IT takes time and effort. That's why people don't do IT. There's a famous saying that I was thinking of when I get to this section, dropping down and trying to like, interpreted, like still these ideas.

So I remember them in the shortest amount of time possible. And I was like, oh, this is like this. This thing is attributed to many different people.

But he says, I would have write you a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time. And so that's been attributed people like mark twin, sir o and passes. In fact, after I took that note to myself, the fact that, you know, people find more words confusing, you need to edit, you're thinking. And I really think editing is an active service. But I I was rereading Steve shareholder letters from pixar and his nineteen ninety seven shareholder is hilarious, how everything connected.

In his one thousand nine ninety seven shareholder letter, he says, he quotes, he attributed to pal in the letter that I would ever renew your shorter letter, but I didn't have time and is, well, i'm only working on I have plenty of times i'm going to retro a long letter for the shareholder letter. But he certainly didn't do that when he went back to apple. He didn't do IT internally and he didn't do IT externally.

He understood that people find more words confusing and that you really need to add your thinking down to its essence. And I think viewing that as an act of service to other people, because that is what this is, our time here is limited. Do not take two hours to say something, even in fifteen minutes.

Don't take a thousand words when you can, you draw a picture. Editing is an act of service. So the fourth thing that I want to talk about and why I simplicity is important because simple is fast.

So he comes back is hilary story, because they're working on hiring a new advertising agency. Apple is has should be cleared more clear here. So at the time, gilma o is the CEO of apple.

He's going to buys to make decision by next. He is A C. E, O of apple right before Steve jobs takes over.

And when Steve comes back and now he takes over, apple girl is fired. Gill had this like really complicated ongoing process to pick a new advertising agency. You mind, they're losing money if they do not turn things around, they will leally run money, go bankrupt.

Goals, ideas like OK, we need a new advertising. See, this is the way we're going to do IT. We're going to interview more than twenty any different advertising agencies and then compare them and then pick the best one.

Steve comes back immediately. Any councils, this entire process, right before charlie monger died, he said something is so important. And he said that trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth.

And what Steve did here is a perfect example of that. Steve cancel this entire process, and he called somebody that he trusted. He called somebody that hate a relationship with.

He causes his old friend, lee clu. Lee clu is the one that did the nineteen eighty four macintosh ad that was a decade before where we are in the story. Steve trusted lee, and that trust enabled them to move faster.

That is so much simple. And I an interview, how how do you even interview twenty different advertising agencies? How longs are you going to take? And then you have to them down OK.

Now we got our to p 10。 Now I ve got a top five. Now we done to two or three.

Simple is fast, so still costly. They immediately start working. The second ad they do is the hears to the crazy one ad.

And so in the book, Kenny toga, that the fact that that ad was created, if they came with the ad, they made IT and they air IT in less time than they would have taken gilma to complete all the initial meetings for the twenty different advertising agency. Gee was being complex, and so therefore he was moving slow. Steve was being simple, so therefore he moved fast.

There's a hello story. I did this, uh, this episode on herky hr, which is the founder of southwest. He's one of my favorite founders have ever studied.

I find him while the entertaining. It's episode three twenty two, if you haven't heard of yet. But he, herb also had this like religious dedication to simplicity.

And so there's a fta sic story in the book that fingers are related to what Steve was doing IT up on why simplicity is so important because it's fast. So I says her keller illustrates the speed with which southwest moves by telling a story about don valentine, former V, P. Of marketing.

Why would he be former? I wonder why valentine had just joined from doctor pepper. So, you know, a big, slow bear craic organization.

No disrespect them, right? Valentine, a just joined from talk or pepper when the marketing group met in january. You gotta remember these dates january, the meaning in january, to discuss a new television campaign.

Valentine was ready with his timely for producing spot I am going to trying to love already. We're meaning in january. So this really says, okay, we're ready, guys, to do this.

We're going to write the script in march, part of me, two months from now. We're going to write the script march. We're going to get script approval in April.

Member, in january. Forgot sick. So we're going to write description march were going to script provo on April. We're onna cast this commercial in june.

What though? What do you doing? And we're going to shoot IT in september when valentine finished, herb said, don, I hate to tell you, but we're talking about next wednesday. Not we're not running this ad nine months or now when I could take nine months, we onna make an ad and it's going to be done and shot by next wednesday. Simple is fast.

And I think what the advice that herod give you and I think the advice that Steve bird give you, if you feel you're not moving fast enough, narrow your scope, simplify and then up the intensity. And there's another thing that herb and Steve had, this is the fifth thing I want to tell you about. And there is another thing that they both had in common, and is how they taught, how they taught there is a casual conversation with the ultimate decision maker.

And the reason I I thought about this section too, like why would why do I want to name this? Like how Steve taught there is a great line from, uh, jim cynical, who's the founder and former CEO of costco and he says, as a leader, if you're not spending ninety percent of your time teaching, you're not doing your job. What did Michael jorn said? He was teaching? He was a leader team.

He was teaching his team. There are certain standards that you live by. This is the 是 both way。 This is the apple way.

This is the southwest airlines way. Jim, cynical thing. This is how we do things at costco. If you're not spending ninety percent of your time teaching, you're not doing your job. And the way Steve taught was through conversations, says in the book, if you had this like slick presentation, this is internally okay. I'm going doing an entire knew the next episode about how Steve jobs sold, tell you more about any minute.

But if you had a sick presentation internally, Steve suspected that you spend the body, the limited, valuable time that you had, wrapping the idea, making a beautiful, instead of spending the time thinking through the idea itself and getting to its essence, talks about that over over gan. Get to the essence of the idea. Boil idea.

Boil everything down. Do not use him when he told andy, andy, well, the guy that sold this company for two hundred and twenty five million to Steve that imagine earlier, something andy says in the video that Steve, I do not use ten words. When you can use one, use a picture instead of a deck with a hundred words, he would tell andy over.

And you have to think, like an apple guy. That is, that is Steve teaching andy. This is the standards of accidents we have.

This is how we do things at apple. Great companies have distinct cultures, have a distinct way of doing things. I just spent the week with one of the most valuable private companies it's run by.

I am not name the company or who the person, but I would say is the seventy year old founder who's been running the company for forty five years. It's just like I described as, like owes. I spent a week inside of only these box.

IT is very obvious when you interact with all that I was with their top executives of forty topic executives in the founder. IT is very obvious. They have a distinct culture, and they are literally the best in class in their industry.

And one of the executive said, the rounder has all, I think, is like ten thousand people, eleven thousand people all marching in the same direction. You would say that about Steve jobs. You would say that about herky her and what is remarkably, how informal Steve was this this is how he's teaching his entire company, is a casual conversation with the auto decision maker.

And if you can sender these these casual conversations around a demo picture even Better. But Steve would just talk about why the product needs exist, how the product worked and why is different and Better than other products. And he loved to use visuals, if he could, instead of words, because he thought a picture was simple than words.

He's again, he's trying to make things as simply as possible. So he many examples in the book, and I talk about this more and how he gave presentations to, he would just like jump up, he have version. He draw out the idea if there wasn't a demo of like the software of the product there an image of IT, he would draw on the White board as a way to illustrate his point, and is a fascine line in the book that said that Steve acted as his own slideshow.

He did not want to see a slide show with a bunch bullet points. He would tell you, converse with people rather than present to them. There is one exception to everyone.

That's when Steve did the new product presentation for apple's new products. That was not a casual conversation. That was a presentation. That presentation was painstakingly choregraphic there he was relentless about rehearsin IT. He had back up plans for everything.

The thing that was the same about the internal, a conversations and the exact presentation was that he loved using images, demos, simple language and an ideas stripped down to its essence. I'm not has been too much time here, because the next episode I read an entire book on how Steve jobs prepared for presentations. I think this can be very valuable to unite because a business sales.

We're selling customers. We're selling employ in the company mission. We're selling recruits and why you want to join the company. And I think the book I talked about, the next episode is really a blueprint from a super salesman, a master salesman that see jaws was.

And the last thing I want to talk you about is a way to find a simple path forward, and actually call this the host principal. I came up with that name myself from this biography, William and off host that I read many years ago, is an idea that I think going to be applied to whatever industry that you're working in. So I wanted get to one of the most important things that I ever read, and I took me rereading a multiple times for you to actually thinking and have a fundament understanding.

What I actually met is a line in water eyes graphed jobs that says one of jobs, talents with spotting markets that were filled with second rate products. And when you analyze Steve jobs career through that length, that one of his greatest talents of spotting markets that were fill with second rate products, you see IT over over again. He did this with computers.

He did this with M. P. Three players. He did this with phones. He did this with tablets.

And one of the hallMarks of a second rate product is the fact that is too complex. I'm going to read from the book because I think this is so important. This is describing because, member, this is the focus on really the turn round of apple.

The ipod really was the product that helped apple turn the corner. And so when Steve analyzed that, he says that he believed that the music player category needed most was simplicity. And whichever company delivered IT would soon be running this planet.

That is a quote from Steve jobs. Whichever company delivered IT would soon be running this planet. IT turned out that one key inside allowed apple to leap ahead of the company, Steve explained in a two thousand and six interview.

Now this is Steve's words. We had the hardware expertise, the industrial design experts and the software expertise, including itunes. One of the biggest insights we had was that we decided not to try to manage your music library on the ipod, but to manage IT in itunes.

Other companies try to do everything on the device itself and made IT so complicated that IT was useless. In other words, we analyze everything other computor were doing. And in focusing on what they were not doing, we found a simple path forward to, what do I call that, the host principle.

William range of hers built a media and empire. There will be worth like thirty billion dollars in today's dollars. And IT started out with a single newspaper in sands, cisco, that his father gave to him.

And so at the time, there is a bunch of other newspapers and competitors in the serving the same city right there. All their newspapers are very similar. There's very little differentiation. And their distribution, the way they are selling there is no differentiation. They would sell.

They hire these things these other kids called new there, like a little boy, they like nine thousand years old, and they'd rome around the streets selling the newspaper, you know, for a panny or two pennies. And so William rent offers is looking at this, right, is like why I want to build a media empire. I have one newspaper, I want to expand.

I have little product differentiation. I have no distribution differentiation. What should I do? And he realizes, like, well, the people in same for cisco are not unique. They're like people everywhere. They read the newspaper because they want to know what's going on in the world, what's going on in the the country, what's going on in sports and business and everything else. And newspapers read about and yet mean in all, my competitors are just focused about the resonance in sam Francisco.

Is there something that my competitors are not doing, other markets and my computor are ignoring that I can attack? And so what he did was he put his newspapers on trains and started sending them to all the communities that may be a hundred miles from go. They don't live in time to go, but they're the same kind of people on the party interest in the same thing.

So instead of fighting, we might have been a losing battle, just kind of cutting Prices and doing the exact same thing as his competitors. He put his newspapers on trains and drastically expanded the market. This immediately works.

He starts making much more money than his competitors, and then he uses that extra money to start buying up his competitors and the expands to other cities. That is the beginning of what turns into this giant multi tens of billion dollars empire. All of that from a relatively simple ideas.

So the horse principles is very simple. You write down on the peaceful aper everything that your competitors are doing, whether in the product design or their distribution. Then you draw a giant x across IT.

You tell yourself you cannot do IT the way they are doing IT and you force yourself to think about new ways and new solutions is exact thing and right on a peaceful aper certainly didn't call the horse principal l but if you think about what Steve jobs is telling us, he's analyze what is while as computers were doing, he attacked a marker for the secondary products. He says, if I can do that, i'm forced to find a new way. And he found a new and Better way.

And that changed tory of apple forever. And I think this quote from Steve jobs is a perfect place to close. Simple can be harder than complex.

You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make IT simple. But it's worth IT in the end, because once you get there, you can move mounds. And that is, well, leave IT.

Highly recommend buying the book, reading the book, keeping a close to its a great resource if you buy the book using a link that in the showers in your Price player are available. Founder park, I come you'll be supporting the park test at the same time that is three hundred and forty nine books down one thousand ago. And i'll talked again soon.

I have just two quick things to tell you about before you go. Number one, I am hosting another founders conference. This one will be on july twenty th.

Through the thirty first is in a private venue deep in the california redwoods as places gorgeous. This actually, in Scotts valley, california. And the idea to do these two day conferences was actually pulled out of me by people that listen to founder.

So one of the most common request that i've received over the years is this desire for can't David, can you introduce me to other people that listen to founders? And I didn't do anything with an information because I didn't know how to do IT. And I actually think I stumbled upon a great way to do IT.

And i'll tell you a minute, but I was thinking about I just listen to this entire episode back, uh, the same one that you just listen to. And if you really think about one of the main idea is like your goal really should be that you have a single idea that expressed clearly. So I would heard that multiple times.

I reread that part of, we round that part, and I thought about, okay, what is the single idea express clearly? Like, why do these founders conferences, these founder, that's why do they need to exist. And they need to exist in the reason, the north star that these events exist is to help you build relationships with other founders, investors, executives and high value people.

And IT wasn't until after I had this idea, and was until after I did the first founders conference, which was held back in march and Austin, that I realized, oh, I accidentally stumbled, I had this idea, and that was, you know, a test of that hypothesis. But I realize I H, I actually stumbled on a great way to help other people build relationships with high five people. And you do IT really quickly, and is a couple ways that these events structure that I think serve this goal right.

What is that single idea express? clearly? I want to help high value people build relationships with each other. And so what I did at the event back in march in, i'm also doing at the event in jon july twenty thousand, thousand and thirty first days, I ran out the entire venue.

That means that when if you attend, every single person you see there is for the same reason, is there for the same reason and has the same interest as you. Number two, if you just heard what what Steve jobs, one of Steve jobs mean, principles like, just make IT one of his biggest concerns, making IT as easy as possible for other people. And what I decided to is like, I want to make these all inclusive, which means that if you get you, all you have to do is get yourself there, right? And I take care.

The rest you're lodging your food. Access to every single part of the event is all taking care of. And in the third most important point that I think help facilitate a lot of these relationships so quickly, the last event is these are intentionally smaller events.

This event in Scott's valley, california, on july twenty nine to thirty first, that I highly encourage you to attend is only to me around one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty people. And IT is the the end result. Why I think I stumbled under something is because the amount of friendships, investment deals, customer leads, partnerships and other opportunities that can that have happened that came out as a result.

A direct result of the last event is staggers, I Frankly, with shock by IT. And that leads me to believe that i'm on to something because again, the single idea expressed clearly the reason this event exists is to build relationship. So even the way that the the event is scheduled, there is a lot of unstructured time to talk to other attends.

I will be there the entire time. There will be a lot of smaller break out sessions around specific topic. So if you attend and you want to lead to break out session around the topic that you have be an expert in, just reply back to your confirmation, you will ask, you apply.

And then my events team will handle the everything else I am doing this event in partnership with rick burnand, pol poser. They have a founders of, say, to grow, which is a five hundred million dollar holding company. And one of the break out sessions will be about how they started and structured their company.

I met rick and paul and built a relationship with them through the podcast. They were listeners of the podcast, and my friend Patrick knew them and introduce them to me. And they also taught, in addition to running this, they run a packet, all the art of investing.

They run their holding company. But they also teach a order dame. And they actually invited me. To speak at their art investing class and that relationship LED to this partnership, which is a great illustration of, again, the single idea, express clearly, why does this exist?

This exists to help you build relationships, the other high value people, and that opens up opportunities and futures you can never possibly predict. So to come to the event to build relations to other high value people, the first thing you need to do is go to founders podcast that com for ash events and apply. The second quick thing I have to tell you about is another example of something being pulled out of me, and one of the benefits of that you just heard.

So limit, limits ing. So for years, people know because i'd go around talking about the fact that that since two thousand eighteen, I have been catalog ging. All the research that I do for this podcast, and I was putting all of my notes and highlights in this APP called read wise.

I go around talking about how grade IT is, how I couldn't make the podcast without IT. You just heard me use what is now called founders notes. So founders notes to calm, to sign up for this. But what this is, is my own internal tool that I used a catalogue, the collective knowledge of history, so I can pull that up on demand.

And you just hurt that because when i'm quoting sam walton, when i'm quoting Michael Morris, when i'm quoting while disney, her killer, her James, all these other ideas from past Steve jobs podcasts, I was doing that by searching this giant database that contain all my notes, all my highlights, all my transcripts. And now this A I assistant that i'll do all this reading and researchers for you called sage, that I also built into founders notes. And the reason I say this was pulled atomy, this idea of to build this product in partnership with read wise.

And again, this is the power of relationships, because I found out about read wise, because one of the founders rest in semi email, two thousand and and he's OK. You obviously read a lot. You might think this APP is valuable. I didn't know IT existed until then. And then I was until five years later that I then sent, i'd talk to tristan, and i'd sent chism emails.

Okay, there is such A A opportunity for first partner here, because I keep getting emails, these dms, these requests, that, hey, how can I have access to this giant second brain? You have, I would argue, the most valuable database in the world when IT comes to learning from history is great, treat neural. And so the initial idea I came to tRicky as, hey, I would like people to be able to see what I see.

And then since then, we've added so many more features and just meet IT so much Better, that this is now a tool that I used nearly every single day. And if we go back to that idea, the same idea that there was important, Steve jobs, hey, we need a single idea, express clearly. One of my favorite line, line that i've ever heard this is why there's so many that such a high amount of people, the unite study that were obsessed with learning from history, they had read hundreds of biography throughout their career because they understood with charly monger so eloquently said that learning from history is a form of leverage.

Learning from history is a form of leverage. Founders notes gives you the superpower to do this on demand. The pike cast is a great tool to learn from history, but IT is pushed to you.

Founders notes gives you the ability to control IT. IT gives you the body to tap into that collective of histories, greate entrepreneurs, and use IT when you need IT. And so there's two main ways that you can search founders notes. One is the key y word search.

If you listen to the last episode I just did on Michael Jordan, the last twenty minutes of that podcast is me going through, because I was asked a question, how do, how do histories greatest entrepreneur about hiring? All I did was type in hiring into the keyword search and founder notes and then went through, you know, this quite like one of ten or fifteen different examples. The second thing, if you don't have a keyword search, I just ran into a front of mine who has access to sage.

Sage is the A I. Assistant that Operates on top of founders notes. And that idea also came, was pull, I guess, not pulled out of me. I was given to me by somebody that was baa testing stage for me. And this person, after using IT, said, hey, you know, you had all these other names for that.

I think this can call like founders GPT, or the name for terrible the, and I takes solace that Steve jobs also came up with bad names and the mac man forgot sake. So anyway, he's like, this is, after using this, this is not the right names, you should call IT stage. And he sent these two definitions, and he said, because sage is a profoundness wise person, he refers to someone with a deep understanding of life, acuity knowledge and sound judgment.

That is, every single person you are in the podcast, they've had a deep understanding. Life accumulates knowledge. Ged, because they've, they spent fifty years on the career, and somebody put all the highlights are the the main lessons into book and sound judgment.

And the second one definition was that a sage as a wise, wise, discerning, a prudent person, IT describes someone who shows good judgment and makes well considered decision. So a friend of mine was A K S. On a way to a board meeting.

I needed, uh, some information about leadership. I was asking sage for how his, he's greatest entrepreneurs out about leadership. And I gave me a bunch of good quotes that I used in the board meeting.

That is what I meant. Founders notes gave you the superpower to now access the collective knowledge of his Grace entrepreneur's demand when you need IT. Another subscriber just sent me this note.

That founders note is giving him a compounding tactical advantage over his competition. If you were going to spend hours and hours invested in listening to different founders episodes, I would encourage you heavily to invest into a substitution for founders notes. IT makes the lessons that you are learning on the podcast even more powerful.

One again, IT gives you the superpower to tap into the collective knowledge of history of greatest entrepreneurs. demand. And you can do so easily by going to founders notes dcom, that is, founders within us, just podcast founders notes stock com. Thank you very much for support. Thank you very much for listening, and i'll talk you again soon.