Best Look Ever into Steve Jobs (and Apple)

The world is in mourning for Steve Jobs.

There isn’t much to add — we feel as many others do — and we’re not a fan of bandwagon posts.

There is a little something, though, that may be worth highlighting. In terms of Jobs lore, the Stanford Commencement Speech is cherished, and deservedly so. (Who hasn’t been inspired by it?)

But the most insightful look into Steve Jobs as a leader — and Apple as a company — is something you just might have missed, and should see.

It’s a wide-ranging interview with John Sculley, the man who fired Jobs way back when — and it’s an incredible read. You can find it here, via the cult of mac website.

Here is an excerpt:

What makes Steve’s methodology different from everyone else’s is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do – but the things that you decide not to do. He’s a minimalist.

I remember going into Steve’s house and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn’t believe in having lots of things around but he was incredibly careful in what he selected. The same thing was true with Apple. Here’s someone who starts with the user experience, who believes that industrial design shouldn’t be compared to what other people were doing with technology products but it should be compared to [what] people were doing with jewelry… Go back to my lock example, and hinges and a door with beautiful brass, finely machined, mechanical devices. And I think that reflects everything that I have ever seen that Steve has touched.