#349 How Steve Jobs Kept Things Simple

0:00 Okay, so the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today is insanely simple, The Obsession that drives Apple's success. It was written by Ken Siegel. 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 Ken Siegel 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 I've made I don't know, ten episodes on Steve Jobs. I've read

0:30 as many books on him as I can find. And yet there were stories in this book that I have found Nowhere else. And it's because Ken worked with Steve intimately for over a decade. Steve had no problem calling Ken at midnight. To debate a single word in the ad copy.

0:46 And so one of the things that Ken noticed that was different from the other clients that he had was that Steve It Steve's 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 his business, to the way he communicated internally with his employees. To the way he communicated externally. to his potential customers, to how he organized his team, to how he's built his products.

1:09 And so Ken noticed that Steve had a tool to do this, and he calls it the simple stick, which is one of my favorite stories. This is the Second or third time. that I've read the book and considering I reread my highlights all the time, it's like the tenth time I read the book. And for some reason I failed to make an episode on it before. So I'm rectifying that mistake here, but the simple stick, the reason I bring that up is cause from the f very first time I read the book, you know, probably eight years ago, something like that.

1:32 This idea of the simple stick always stuck in my mind. So the simple stick is just a tool that Steve Jobs used to keep his team From Overcomplicating things. If an idea was not distilled down to its essence, Steve would reject it. If an idea took a turn when it 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.

1:54 Steve would hit you with the simple stick. Until you simplified it down to one. There was an ad made many decades ago for the Macintosh. And it said the tagline on the ad was describing the Macintosh, and it said that it was simply amazing and amazingly simple. Steve wanted Apple to make products. That were simply amazing and amazingly simple and the simple stick.

2:14 was the tool that he used to make that happen. And so the main thesis behind this entire book and why I want to talk to you about it. Is that people prefer simplicity, customers respond to it, yet humans naturally overcomplicate things. Trucity that is applied to consistently throughout your entire organization is extremely rare. Just think about every single business that you ever interact with. Most of the businesses, the products and services that we use that we buy would not be described as a product of

2:40 Clear thinking and simplicity. Keep in mind the time frame that we're talking about. We're talking in most of the the book is about the time where Steve comes back to Apple. Apple is losing money, their product line sucks. They either had to turn it around or die. So I think one of the things that Steve realized. In and a lot of other histories great entrepreneurs realize that simplicity actually helps you scale.

3:00 And so when I was reading this part of the book, I thought about Sam Walton. When I read I read his autobiography multiple times. The last time I made an episode on it was episode two thirty four. But he has a line in that book where he says if you don't zero in on bureaucracy every so often, you will naturally build in layers. You never set out to add bureaucracy. You get it. Period.

3:19 Without even knowing so. You always have to be looking to eliminate it. The simple stick was how Steve eliminated at its source. There's a great line in Sam Walton's autobiography. That's by a uh Walmart executive.

3:33 And it's a story about how Sam is trying to use the simple stick. He's constantly questioning. And let me just read this to you. says I'll 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 to be marked at the right price. and marked correctly on the spot.

3:49 But because it often wasn't getting done properly, we created positions called test scanners. People who go around the stores with handheld scanners. Making sure everything is priced correctly. There's another layer right there, and Sam didn't ever visit a store without ask if we really needed these folks. And I think that story is a great example that humans actually overcomplicate things. And it's the leader's job, the constant question do we actually need this additional layer?

4:14 The more layers you have, the harder it is to 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 the most important is the way he communicated. I've told you in the past, I think he's the clearest thinker, the clearest communicator out of every single person I've read about. And so Steve believed that blunt communication was effective. Direct communication is extremely simple. So in every single book that I've ever read about Steve Jobs, The people that worked with him all say the exact same thing.

4:39 He was very easy to understand. If he thought something was great, he's gonna tell you. If he thought your work was shit, that's one of his favorite words to describe. Poor work. If he thought your work was shit, he's going to tell you, in fact, the first meeting.

4:52 That Steve Jobs had with the author, Ken Siegel, right? Steve goes up to him, he's like Your T V work is great. And Ken's like great. And he goes, But your print work is shit. The reason this is important because if somebody's that direct with you. You know immediately what you need to do. Ken knew immediately what he needed to do. Oh, okay.

5:10 If I want to keep Steve as a client, my print work has to improve right now. Employees like all other people respond to clear communication. There's a book That I've read multiple times. I think I've done two podcasts on it. Maybe the last time I did the podcast on it was episode two eighty one. That episode is called Working with Steve Jobs. It is about this book called Creative Selection, which is written by Ken Cosienda. Ken was a programmer.

5:32 Who demoed multiple times and worked closely with Steve Jobs. I want to read this section from Ken's book that is so excellent. And if you haven't uh listened to Episode two eighty one. I would listen to it after you get done with this one. And so he's describing how clear Steve's communication was to his employees. And this is what Ken says Steve was at the center of all circles.

5:52 He made all of the important product decisions. That's hilarious because the amount of detail and what he's paying attention to that I'll get to in this book is it's exactly what Ken Cosiana saying here. He made all the important product decisions from my standpoint as an individual programmer.

6:07 Demoing to Steve was like visiting the Oracle of Delphi. The demo was my question. And Steve's 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.

6:22 Listen to this line. I'd uh double underlined it. Highlighted it. It's so important. He was always easy to understand. He would either approve a demo Or he request to see something different next time.

6:34 Whenever Steve 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 were as intuitive and straightforward.

6:47 Another word for simple, right? As possible. And he was willing to invest his own time. Effort and influence. To see that they were.

6:55 In that example, Steve is doing that with his employee. When he's saying to Ken, 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 the the most simple form of communication. And I think one of the most important byproducts of this is that with clear communication, with the blunt communication that Steve used, everybody understood the standards that

7:19 He insisted they upheld. So there's this great uh video. I'll I'll link it down below. And this guy named Andy Miller. It's w 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.

7:34 to Cupertino and he worked. With Steve Jobs. And he's describing This byproduct of the clear communication that Steve had with him and everybody else around him.

7:44 And Andy said that you are aware of the consequences if you screw up. And Andy says that something that Steve would repeat to him was that Andy, you are a very complicated man, and that was not a compliment. Uh Andy said that Steve's Whole world was simplicity. He wanted everything boiled down to its essence. And he tells us one story. Again, this is it just makes

8:04 It makes yourself this this direct communication with blunt communication, I think I really, truly believe it makes you easy to interface with. And so Andy was daydreaming one time. He's sitting in a meeting with Steve Jobs and Tim Cook Tim Cook. And all these like high end executives. I think there's like four to six uh of like Steve's top team in the room and Andy's there.

8:21 And Andy's Daydreaming he's 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 paying attention. So he asked him a question related to what they were talking about. And he's like, Okay, Andy, what do you think about this?

8:35 And Andy couldn't answer it. And Steve said You weren't paying attention, were you? And he's like, No, I wasn't He goes, 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 uh what he meant by that. What should I do next? No, you know exactly blunt communication is simple.

8:53 Again, I think this this part that blunt communication makes your standards Easy to understand for others. It's very important. It's also not just It Steve Jobs not the o only person that did this, so I obviously know I've make all these episodes on Michael Jordan. I'm kind of obsessed

9:08 with his competitive nature. And I was re watching the documentary uh The Last Dance, and there's a couple things that Michael said. That I think he shares in common with Steve Jobs, and I actually shook screen shots. Of What Michael was talking about.

9:22 And so I want to compare when Michael came to the Chicago Bulls in nineteen eighty four. to when Steve Jobs came back to Apple in nineteen ninety seven. And so Michael in the documentary is talking about why You know, when they're winning championships When they're when all the all these new people come in after that the Bulls won the third championship, like why are you so hard on your teammates, Michael?

9:42 And he says, again, this is very clear. When I got here We were shit. Meaning the Chicago Bulls were a terrible, terrible team when he got there. And we got to elevate to being a championship quality team.

9:56 This is the punchline. There's certain standards that you have to live by. And when I saw that and I'm reading this book, I'm thinking about what Michael Jordan said on The Last Dance, I'm thinking about what Ken Siegel's writing in this book. I thought of th there's this guy named Mike Moritz. A lot of people describe him as the best venture capitalist of all time. Way before he's a venture capitalist, he wrote this book called

10:15 The Little Kingdom, how Apple and Steve Jobs changed the world. It was published. The book is published before Steve Jobs gets kicked out the first time. Mike is a fantastic writer, transitions from being a journalist to an investor, winds up being world class at that as well. But then what's most fascinating. Is Michael w updates the book, I think somewhere in maybe two thousand eight, two thousand nine, something like that.

10:35 And he uh the updated version is the version I read. And now it's called Return to the Little Kingdom. I wanna read this. Tell me this is not the exact same thing. that Michael Jordan is talking about. And it's Michael Moritz is discussing the unparalleled story of Apple, right?

10:50 Michael Jordan just said, Hey I when I came to the bullsh When I got here, we were shit. And we elevated to being a championship quality team, and so therefore Now you're coming in new to something we built.

11:01 So I'm going to insist that there's certain standards that you have to live by. Michael Jordan was the leader of the Bulls, just like Steve Jobs was the leader of Apple, and this is when Mike more it's said on the unparalleled story of Apple. This is why I keep making Podcast after podcast, reading book after book of Steve Jobs. Why is it so important for you and I to revisit this to talk about this, you know, every few weeks, every few months, at least, you know, hopefully a couple times a year.

11:24 'Cause this is what Mike Morit said. Many are familiar with the reemergence of Apple. They may not be as familiar with the fact that it has few, if any, parallels. When did a founder ever return to the company from which he had been so rudely rejected to engineer a turnaround as complete and spectacular as Apple's? While turnarounds are difficult in any circumstances, they are doubly difficult in a technology company.

11:47 It is not too much of a stretch to say That Steve founded Apple not once, but twice. And the second time He was alone. Steve Jobs not complete that turnaround without

11:59 Crystal clear communication. So This is also something that why it 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, you know, world class entrepreneurs. Because Most people don't

12:14 want blunt communication because blunt communication creates conflict. That is why it's rare. There's a great line from Jeff Bezos. So Jeff Bezos is known for being you know, a very blunt communicator. Jeff Bezos says I think in the shareholders, if I'm not mistaken. He said that he would take conflict over agreement every time because he believes that conflict produces a better result. Most people don't want conflict.

12:32 Jeff Bezos didn't run from it, he wasn't afraid of it. Steve Jobs would agree. He did not clearly did not run. From conflict or from blunt communication. And I think what Steve and Jeff both share in common and again, ch I've done what I don't know, seven episodes on on Jeff?

12:47 Steve and Jeff had one thing in common. Where they had a bunch of things in common, but one thing ab above all is they'd put the quality of the work Above being liked. And this idea of blunt communication, this idea of being very easy to understand, it's not just when Steve was speaking to you. It's also in his written material as well. So Th there's a great thing in the book that I want to read to you.

13:04 And it's about You know, Ken made these ads. And then he gets an email from Apple's legal team. And he says

13:11 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 stів for his guidance. Just minutes after I hit the send button, his reply landed in my inbox.

13:35 Fuck the lawyers. So again, so far we have two examples of Steve communicating directly with Ken. One was They were having a conversation. Love your TV work. Your print work is shit. Ken knows immediately what to do.

13:46 Now in email he's saying, Fuck the lawyers, what do you think like Ken knows what to do? Steve is saying run the ad. And another very valuable consequence of this simplicity is that Steve was able to run his business. He ran his business as if there was little time to waste. He was like this since he was like a kid. Remember I told I told you a story when he was a nineteen year old. working for Nolan Bushnell. Nolan Bushnell's the founder of Atari was Steve Jobs mentor. He's like a decade older.

14:07 uh than Steve Jobs and he wrote an entire book about what that was like and he's like, Oh, Steve had one speed. Go. And I think the clear communication helped with that because you can't move fast if your communication isn't simple and easy to understand. So Before I move on from this section. What is the opposite if you really think about what is the opposite of blunt communication, what is the opposite of

14:25 Direct communication. Can makes the So I went to to the dictionary. And the definition of meandering

14:35 And uh you apply to communication is communication that moves slow in no particular direction with no clear purpose. communication that takes a turn instead of traveling in a straight line. If you Rambled, Steve would cut you off. If you move slow, he would fire you. So that's Steve using simplicity in the way he communicated.

14:53 Now the an another way he used simplicity is how he organized his team. So his favorite way to work is small groups of very smart people. And in fact, Steve was speaking at a conference. It was the all things D conference. Shortly before he died. And you could see he clearly very sick and he he was talking about this Very early days. So I'll give you an example of when he was building the Macintosh when he was in his twenties.

15:14 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 OS. One person is in charge of Mac hardware. One person is in charge of marketing. One person is in charge of operations. We are organized like a startup. We are the biggest startup on the planet.

15:31 And I think the main principle here is not only is this simpler, but if you think about this, the ultimate decision if the ultimate decision maker is involved in every step of the way, Steve would Steve believed. That The quality of the work increases. It's also I think he's right about that. And I also think that's just the way he liked to work. In fact, there's a line in the book, there's a quote in the book where Steve says

15:51 The way I like to work is where I touch Everything. One of my favorite maxims that you see that appears over and over again if you analyze what's actually taking place in all these books that you and I are reading and talking about. Is that actions express priority. Ste Steve shows you with his actions how he spends his time, what's important to him. So

16:07 There's a ton of examples in the book, but like Steve did not believe in delegating marketing and advertising decisions at all. This is not an exaggeration. He approved every single image that was used in an ad. He would approve every single word.

16:20 He would deliberate over the copy. This is when he's calling Ken at midnight. To talk about a single Word. The degree to which he did this cannot be understated. It didn't matter if it was a billboard in Missouri Or a full page ad

16:34 in the Wall Street 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 you an example. It's very common for executive COs, founders of giant companies. You have people filtering all kinds of things for you, right? But Steve put

16:51 The quality of the product above everything else. And then He he he says in another book, Hey I truly believe that the the we're making the best products in the world.

17:00 I want every single person to have in the world to have an access to an Apple device. Which is funny'cause the way they're priced. But his whole point was that to do that we have to get world class not only at building we we already build world class products, but we have to get world class at marketing. And so I remember when I read that for the first time and this I think this is episode two oh four, it's a long time ago, you know, many, many years ago.

17:19 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 I was like, Oh, 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 believed. And yet in this book, there's an actually interesting idea for you and I on 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 to you, it's one of your top priorities, right? Do not let other people

17:47 Filter. For you. And so Steve did something that's very interesting. So obviously he's got marketing people on his marketing and advertising team, right? He's he got outside Ad agencies. He insisted on seeing the ads before his executives. He didn't want them to filter what he saw.

18:02 'Cause they they could start guessing, like, Oh, you know Uh, Steve won't like this. We don't need to show that one to him. He's like, No, no, I don't want this filtered at all. The ads are created by the advertising agency, they go straight to me. Another way that was very fascinating. Is

18:15 Think about if you've ever been in these meetings. They they like pitch their idea to you. Like you have maybe the the the image or the demo of what the ad's gonna look like. Maybe it's the video and they wanna like set it up and they're like setting it up and they narrate to you before and he's like Stop doing that. And he has a great again, this is just simple, clear communication.

18:35 Are you going to be sitting next to me explaining these things when I see the ad in the newspaper? And the answer is of course not. And so if you if you really think about it, like one of the the supporting characters of this book is the number one. Steve was obsessed with trying to get them as close to number one as possible. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. But I was thinking about what he was saying. I was like, Oh well

18:54 The only thing more simple than one is zero. And and by what what's happening at in this meeting is like, Oh, he wants 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 wanted to be organized like a startup. He just wanted these small groups of smart people all dedicated to a single thing. have one top priority is Ken talks about the amount of people in a meeting.

19:16 Where they are literally deciding what Uh what ad Apple ads the public is gonna see. It's like there's a handful of people. He talks about uh other companies in the book where he'll count. There'll be like thirty two people in the room. Steve Jobs would never allow that.

19:29 There's stories in the book where if he notices a a a spectator to a meeting that is Not essential. He will ask them why are you here? If there's not a good response, he'll he'll make them leave. Simplicity's best friend is small groups of smart people. So

19:43 He did this in the beginning of his career. So his commitment to small groups of smart people Sometimes included designing the team within constraints. So when he was building the first Macintosh, he's in his twenties. He limited the team to a hundred people. If you wanted to add a person, if you say, Hey, we need, you know, this person's help. You act you first have to find the person that was unnecessary and replace them.

20:03 And then I'm really glad that I reread this book after I just read the book on how Walt Disney built Disneyland 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 groups 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 Walt Disney was

20:28 They were both comfortable with an absence of process. And so I wanna read this excerpt to you from the book that I just did on episode three forty seven where sh we're you know, the entire book is about how did Walt Disney build what he considered his masterpiece, which is Disneyland. And so we have a guy working for Walt Disney said, You asked the question, what was the process like?

20:45 I kinda laugh because process is an organized way of doing things. I have to remind you during the Walt period of designing Disneyland, we didn't have processes. We just did the work. Process came later. All of these things had never been done before. Walt had gathered up all these people who had never designed a theme park.

21:02 They had never designed a Disneyland. 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 Walt just walked around and made

21:16 suggestions. This idea where While just walking around And making suggestions. If you read all these books on Steve Jobs, it's very similar. So similar. There's an absence of process. Steve made suggestions. Changes were made. Then Steve would review the changes and make more suggestions.

21:32 Walt Disney and Steve Jobs both trusted their own taste and judgment. So Another gr great reason to read this book too is like I'm not saying that Steve's taste and judgment were perfect. In this book you have one of undoubtedly one of the greatest entrepreneurs to ever do it.

21:47 I the book is full of bad ideas coming from Steve. Let me give you an example. So Can see go. He the author. He's the one that came up with the name I Mac. And thank God he did, because you know what Steve wanted to call the iMac before it was called IMAC?

22:01 He wanted to call The iMac Mac Man. One of Steve's heroes was the founder of Sony, a Kio Marita. and one of the most successful Sony products of all time. Are the walkman or was the walkman.

22:14 And so Steve's like, Oh, okay, we can call ours the Mac Man. And if that idea wasn't in this book, you would have never believed that Steve Jobs would come up with such a terrible product name. There's another crazy idea that does not sound like Steve at all. But he was seriously considered. He his idea was like, Hey, what if uh instead at the time they were charging for operating system upgrades that Apple just gives you for free now.

22:34 And so you you know, you pay ninety nine dollars or a hundred and twenty nine dollars, something like that, to to upgrade the operating system on your Mac. And he's like, Hey, what if we gave it away for free and we just did an ad supported version of Mac OS. And instead of buying them, you can get it for free. But you have to watch an ad bef every time before you use your computer.

22:54 What? That doesn't sound like Steve Jobs, right? And thankfully, both of those you know, ideas Steve changes mind and again just this this constant iteration, let's surround myself with these small groups of smart people. Let's make suggestions like m let's make changes then over time.

23:10 Our products will improve. Okay, so I'm gonna move on to the third thing I wanna talk to you 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 First time I read the book that I've never forgot about.

23:24 And it 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 ad. So your goal is a single idea expressed clearly. And For advertising, you really should try to pick Just one message per ad.

23:42 And so this is another example where they're going over this 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 uh like close friend of Steve Jobs for like three decades, his guy named Lee Clow. He did this demonstration of the difference between a good ad and a and a bad ad. So Lee crumpled up a piece of paper.

24:05 Into a ball. and threw it to Steve and asked him to catch it, and Steve was able to. And he and Lee says that is a good ad. Then he crumpled up five pieces of paper into little balls and threw them all towards Steve at the same time and asked him to catch him, and Steve didn't catch any of them. And Lee said, That is a bad ad.

24:20 And Lee's point was that the more things that you ask people to focus on, the less that they remember. So I remember reading James Dyson's autobiography for the first time. I've read it three times since then. The last time was episode three hundred, if you want to listen to it again. But he says something also, he's like, You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea. Let alone two

24:44 or even several. So he talks about in that book when Dyson's first product is that cyclonic vacuum cleaner. He was he thought it was the world's best vacuum cleaner. A a byproduct of the product he made, though. U an added benefit was the fact that the vacuum cleaner could also be used as a dry cleaner for your clothes.

25:02 James never never mentioned that in his ads. He let the customer discover that use later on. Because in the marketing of the vacuum cleaner, he learned what Lee Clau had had learned as well. Your goal is a single message, a single idea expressed clearly.

25:18 One message. Per ad. So then you have this principle the further you get away from one, the more complexity you invite in for products and it compares The operating system upgrades Apple and Windows so at this time.

25:30 Apple offered The Operating. Leopard. As an upgrade, it had one version and one price.

25:37 Microsoft was offering Windows Vista at this time. It had four versions, all with different features and all at different prices. And it's funny to see the difference today because this book is, you know, fifteen years old. I just saw that there's four different versions of the Apple pencil. There's no way.

25:54 Steve would like that. Uh, there's another great story in the book. Where He's got a team that are at the time they're trying to figure out okay, you have this file on your computer from iMovie. You have this home movie you wanna put into physical form, you wanna make it into like a DVD.

26:09 And so his team comes up with like this this complicated Presentation. He just ignores the presentation, walks over to the whiteboard. And he starts drawing out. He he says, This is the application. It's got one window. You drag the video into the window.

26:23 And then it has one button. Again. further you get away from one, the more complex you can evolve it. That one button says burn. And then Steve says, That's it. That is what we're going to make. And then he walked out of the room. After Steve Jobs died, Johnny Ive gave this great interview with Vanity Fair, and he says something I'll never forget. I've mentioned it multiple times.

26:40 He said that Steve was the most remarkably focused person he ever knew so He Steve would even do this when he he would the advice he'd give or the the direction, not even advice, he made it mandatory, the direction he gave his advertising agency. He's like, Listen, For every single quarter. We're gonna have a single focus.

26:58 So whatever product or feature that we are focused on. We're gonna be focused on that for the entire quarter. It's going to be mentioned in every ad, and it's gonna be the main thing you see when you go to apple.com. Steve's most important concern was making things easier for customers. And so the this entire thing when you think about

27:16 This third section where it's 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 know, instinctively, that when you attempt to communicate more than one thing, you are dividing your audience's attention. And the reason I think that that that was an instinctual thing to him Is because He applied it to both internally, so like his teammates, his employees.

27:36 And externally to his ads and his marketing. This idea when you attempt to communicate more than one thing, you are dividing. your audience's attention. It's very important. Number two. People find more words confusing. I love to read. I love to read probably more as you as you know, probably more than

27:51 You know. Ninety nine percent of the people on the planet, whatever that number is. It drives me batshit crazy when I read an eight hundred page book. And this is very common. You read an eight hundred page book. When that book should have been four hundred, three hundred pages.

28:05 Editing your thinking is an act of service. And it takes time and effort. That's why people don't do it. There's this famous saying. That I was thinking of when I got to this section. You know,'cause I'm drotting down. I'm trying to like

28:15 w interpreted like distill 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 it says I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time and so That's been attributed to people like Mark Twain.

28:30 Cicero and Pascal. In fact, after I took that note to myself, the fact that You know, people find more words confusing. You need to edit your thinking. And I I really think editing is an act of service. But I'm I was rereading Steve's shareholder letters from Pixar. And his nineteen ninety seven show. This is hilarious how everything's connected.

28:50 In his nineteen ninety seven shareholder letter. He says he quotes he he attributes to Pascal in the letter that I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have time. And he's like, Well, since I'm only working on Pixar. I have plenty of time, so I'm gonna write you 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 edit your thinking down to its essence.

29:15 And I think viewing that as an act of service to other people because that is what it is. Our time here is limited. Do not take two hours to say something you could say in fifteen minutes. Don't take a thousand words when you can jo a picture. Editing is an act of service. So the fourth thing. that I want to talk about and why simplicity is so important. Because simple is fast.

29:35 So he comes back this hilarious story because They're working on hiring a new advertising agency. Apple is I should be clear, more clear here. So at the time, Gil Emilio is The CEO of Apple, he's the one that buys, makes the decision to buy next. He is the CEO of Apple right before Steve Jobs takes over. And when Steve comes back and now he takes over Apple, Gil is fired. Gill had this like really complicated ongoing process to pick a new advertising agency.

30:00 Keep in mind, they're losing money. If they do not turn things around, they will literally run out of money and go bankrupt. And Gil's idea is like okay, we're gonna We need a new advertising agency and this is the way we're gonna do it. We're gonna interview more than twenty different advertising agencies. and then compare them and then pick the best one. Steve comes back immediately. And he cancels in this entire process.

30:19 Right before Charlie Munger died, he said something is so important. And he said that trust Із вона декретікономік форс. On earth. And what Steve did here

30:29 is a perfect example of that. Steve canceled this entire process and he called somebody that he trusted. He called somebody that he had a relationship with. He calls his old friend. Lee Cloud. Lee Clau is the one that did the nineteen eighty four

30:43 Macintosh ad? That was Yeah, a decade before where we are in the story. Steve trusted Lee and that trust enabled him to move faster. That is so much simple than sending down. I mean interviewed how the hell do you even interview twenty different advertising agencies?

30:57 How long is that gonna take? And then you have to whittle them down. Okay, now we got our top ten, now we got our top five, now we're down to two or three. Simple is fast. So Steve calls Lee They immediately start working. The second ad they do is the Here's to the Crazy One ad. And so in the book, Ken is talking about that the fact that that ad was created. It they came up with the ad

31:14 They made it and they aired it in less time than it would have taken Gillimelio to to complete all the initial meetings for the twenty different advertising agencies. Gill was being complex and so therefore he was moving slow. Steve was being simple, so therefore he moved. Fast. There's a hilarious story. I did this

31:32 uh this episode on Herb Kelleher. which is the founder of South West. He's one of my favorite founders I've ever studied. I th I find him wildly entertaining. It's episode three twenty two, if you haven't heard it yet. But he Herb also had this like religious dedication to simplicity. And so there's a fantastic story in the book that I think is related to what Yeah, Steve was doing it app on why simplicity is

31:53 So important'cause it's fast, so. Uh, says Her Keller illustrates the speed with which Southwest moves by telling a story about Don Valentine. Former VP of marketing. Why would he be former? I wonder why. Valentine had just joined from Doctor Pepper, so a you know, a big, slow bureaucratic organization, no disrespect to them, right? Valentine had just joined from Dr. Pepper when the marketing group met in January. You gotta remember these dates.

32:16 January. They're meeting in January to discuss a new television campaign. Valentine was ready with his timeline for producing spots. I'm gonna try not to laugh. Alrighty. We're meeting in January, so this is what he says, Okay, we're ready, guys, let's do this. We're gonna write the script in March. Pardon me?

32:31 Two months from now, we're gonna write the script in March. We're gonna get script approval in April. Remember we're in January, for God's sake. So we're gonna write the script in March. We're gonna get script approval in April. We're gonna cast this commercial in June. What the What are you doing? And we're gonna shoot it in September.

32:48 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 from now. We're not gonna take nine months. We're gonna make an ad and it's gonna be done and shot.

33:02 By next Wednesday simple as fast. And I think what The advice That Herb would give you, and I think the advice that Steve would give you if you feel you're not moving fast enough, narrow your scope.

33:14 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 this is another thing that they both had in common. And it is how They taught.

33:27 How they taught. A there is a casual conversation with the ultimate decision maker. And the reason I I thought about this section too. It's like why would why do I wanna Name this like how Steve taught. There's a great line from uh Jim Cynigal.

33:42 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 Jordan say? He was teaching he was the leader of the team. He was teaching his team. There are certain standards.

33:58 That you live by this is the Chicago Bullway. This is the Apple way. This is the South West Airlines way. Jim Sinagle saying 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.

34:12 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 gonna do an entire new

34:21 The next episode will be about how Steve Jobs sold. And I'll tell you more about that in a minute. But if you had a slick presentation internally, Steve suspected that you spent the value the the limited valuable time that you had wrapping the idea, making it beautiful, instead of spending the time thinking through the idea itself and getting to its essence. He talks about that over and over again. Get to the essence of the ideal boil idea, boil everything down. Do not use

34:44 When you told Andy. Uh Andy Miller, the guy that sold his company for two hundred seventy five million To Steve that I mentioned earlier. Something Andy says in that video. that Steve would say, do not use ten words when you can use one.

34:56 Use a picture. Instead of a deck with a hundred words. He would tell Andy over and over again, You have to think like an Apple guy. That is him. That is Steve. Teaching Andy. This is the standard of excellence we have. This is how we do things at Apple.

35:09 Great companies have distinct cultures. They 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 I'm not gonna name the company or who the person is.

35:19 But I would say is the seventy eight year old founder who's been running the company for forty five years. It's just like I I I described it as like oh I spent the week inside of one of these books. It is very obvious when you interact with all the I was with their top executives or forty top executives and the founder. It is very obvious they have a distinct culture. And they are literally the the best in class in their industry.

35:40 And one of the executives said the founder has all the I think it's like 10,000 people, eleven thousand people all marching in the same direction. You would say that about Steve Jobs. You would say that about Herb Kelleher. And what is remarkable is how informal Steve was. This This is how he's teaching his entire company. It's a casual conversation with the ultimate decision maker. And if you can center these dis these casual conversations

36:01 around a demo or picture even better. But Steve would just talk about why the product needs to exist. How the product worked? And why it 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 simpler than words. He's again, he's trying to make things as simple as possible. So he would there's many examples in the book, and I'll talk about this more and how he gave presentations too.

36:22 He would just like jump up, he'd have the conversation, and he would draw out the idea if there wasn't a demo of like the software or the product there or an image of it, he would draw on the whiteboard as a way to illustrate his point. And there's a fascinating line in the book that said that Steve acted as his own slideshow. He did not want to see a slideshow with a bunch of bullet points. He would tell you converse with people rather than present to them. There is one exception to that rule and that's when Steve did the new product presentation for Apple's new products.

36:49 That was not a casual conversation. That was a presentation. That presentation was painstakingly choreographed. There were he was relentless about rehearsing it. He had back up plans for everything. the thing that was the same about the internal

37:02 uh conversations and the external presentations of it was that he loved using images. Demos. simple language and then ideas stripped down to its essence. I'm not gonna spend too much time here because the next episode I read an entire book.

37:15 on how Steve Jobs prepared for presentations that I think is gonna be very valuable to you and I because And business is sales. We're selling customers. We're selling employees in the company mission. We're selling recruits and why you want to join the company. And I think the book that I'm going to talk about in the next episode is really a blueprint from

37:30 A you know, super salesman, a master salesman that Steve Jobs was. And the last thing I wanna talk to you about is a way to find a simple path forward. And I actually call this the Hurst principle. I came up with that name myself. from this biography of William Randolph Hurst. that I met read many years ago and there's an idea in it that I think can be applied to whatever industry that you're working in.

37:49 So I wanna get to One of the most important things that I ever read. And it took me rereading it multiple times for it to actually sink in and have a fundamental understanding of what it actually meant. There's a line in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. This has one of jobs.

38:03 Talents with spotting markets. That were filled with second rate products. And when you analyze Steve Jobs' career through that lens, that one of his greatest talents was spotting markets that were filled with second rate products. You see it over and over again. He did this with computers. He did this with MP three players, he did this with phones, he did this with tablets.

38:22 And one of the hallmarks of a second rate product is the fact that it's too complex. I'm gonna read from the book because I think this is so important. This is describing because Remember this is the Focus on really the turnaround of Apple. The iPod really was the product that helped Apple turn the corner. And so when Steve analyzed that, he says

38:39 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.

38:56 It turned out that one key insight allowed Apple to leap ahead of the other company, Steve explained in a two thousand six interview. Now this is Steve's words. We had the hardware expertise, the industrial design expertise. 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.

39:17 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 analyzed everything that our competitors were doing and in focusing on what they were not doing. We found a simple path forward. So why do I call that

39:35 The Hurst principle. William Randolph Hearst built a media empire that would be worth like thirty billion dollars in today's dollars. And it started out with a single newspaper in San Francisco. That his father gave to him. And so at the time, there was a bunch of other newspapers competitors in the c serving the same city, right? They're all in San Francisco.

39:54 There newspapers are very similar. There's very little differentiation. And their distribution, the way they are selling, there's no differentiation. They would sell, they'd hire these things, these little kids called newsies. They're like little boys. They're like nine, ten, twelve years old. And they'd roam around the streets selling the newspaper, you know, for a penny or two pennies. And so William Randolph first is looking at this, right? And he's like, Well, I I want to build a media empire.

40:17 I have one newspaper I want to expand. I have little product differentiation. I have no d uh distribution differentiation. What should I do? And he realizes like well The people in San Francisco 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 their s in the the country, what's going on in sports and business and everything else that newspapers read about. And yet, me and all my competitors are just focused about the residents in San Francisco. Is there something

40:42 that my competitors are not doing are there markets that my competitors 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 San Francisco, 200 miles from San Francisco. He's like, Well, They don't live in San Francisco, but they're the same kind of people and they're probably interested in the same things. So instead of fighting what might have been a losing battle, just kinda like cutting prices and doing the exact same thing as as his competitors. He put his newspapers on trains and drastically expanded the market.

41:11 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 he expands to other cities. That is the beginning of what turns into this giant multi tens of billions of dollars. Empire. All that from a relatively simple idea. So the Hurst principle is very simple. You write down on a piece of paper

41:30 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're doing it, and you force yourself. to think about new ways and new solutions. It's the exact same thing. He didn't Probably didn't write it on a piece of paper, didn't certainly didn't call it the Hurst principle.

41:47 But if you think about what Steve Jobs is telling us, he's analyzed what is While his competitors are doing He attacked a market full of second rate products. He says, If I can't do that, I'm forced to find a new way. And he found a new and better way. And that changed the trajectory of Apple. Forever. And I think this quote from Steve Jobs is a perfect place to close. Simple can be harder than complex.

42:08 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 mountains. And that is where I'll leave it. Highly recommend buying the book, reading the book, keeping it close to you. It's a great resource. If you buy the book using the link that's in the show notes on your podcast player are available at founderspodcast.com. You'll be supporting the podcast at the same time. That is three hundred.

42:30 And forty nine books down, one thousand ago. And I'll talk to you 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 ninth. Through the thirty first. is in a private venue deep in the California redwoods. This place is gorgeous.

42:47 It is actually in Scots Valley, California. And the idea to do these two day conferences was actually pulled out of me. by people that listen to founders. So one of the most common requests that I've received over the years.

43:00 Is this desire for Can David, can you introduce me to other people that listen to founders? And I didn't do anything with that 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 about that in a minute, but I was thinking about I just listened to this entire episode back.

43:17 uh the same one that you just listened to. And if you really think about one of the main ideas, it's like, hey, your goal really should be that you have a single idea that's expressed clearly. So I would uh heard that multiple times. I re read that part, I reround that part. And I thought about okay, what is this single idea expressed clearly? Like why do these founders' conferences, these founder events, why do they need to exist? And They need to exist. And the reason the North Star that these events exist is to help you build relationships with other founders, investors, executives, and high value people.

43:48 And it wasn't until after I had this idea, and it wasn't until after I did the first founders conference, which was held back in March in Austin. Then I realized oh I accidentally stumbled. I had this idea and I that was a you know a test of that hypothesis, but I realized like oh I actually stumbled

44:05 On a great way to help. Other people build relationships with high v value people and you do it really quickly. And there's a couple ways that these events are structured that I think serve this goal. Right. What is that single idea expressed clearly? I wanna help.

44:19 high value b people. Build relationships. With each other. And so What I did at the event back in March and I'm also doing at this event in J on July twenty ninth to the thirty first is I ran out the entire venue.

44:31 That means Yeah, that when if you attend, every single person you see there is for the same reason it's there for the same reason. And has the same interest as you. Number two, if you just heard what Steve Jobs

44:43 One of Steve Jobs' main principles, like just make it his one of his biggest concerns was making it as easy as possible for other people. And What I decided to do is like I wanna make these all inclusive. Which means that if you get your all you have to do Is get yourself there.

44:57 Right, and I take care of the rest. Your lodging, your food. Access to every single part of the event is all taken care of. And then the third most important point that I think helped facilitated a lot of these relationships so quickly, the last event. Is these are intentionally

45:12 Smaller events. this event in Scots Valley, California on July twenty ninth to the thirty first, that I highly encourage you to attend. is only gonna be around a hundred and twenty to a hundred and thirty people. And it is

45:27 Why I think I stumbled on to something is because the amount of Friendships, investments. Deals. Customer leads. partnerships and other opportunities that can that have happened.

45:37 That came out. As a result, a direct result of the last event is staggering. I frankly was shocked 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 relationships. So

45:53 Even the way that the the event is scheduled. There is a lot of unstructured time to talk to other attendees. I will be there the entire time. There will be a lot of smaller breakout sessions around specific topics. So if you attend and you want to lead a breakout session around a topic that you happen to be an expert in, just reply back to your confirmation email after you apply and then my events team will handle the everything else. I am doing this event in partnership with Rick Burnham and Paul Bucer. They're the founders of Seda Grove, which is a five hundred million dollar holding company. And one of the breakout sessions will be about how they started and structured their company.

46:28 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 introduced them to me. And they also taught in addition to running this, they run a podcast called The Art of Investing. they run their holding company, but they also teach at Notre Dame and they actually invited me To speak.

46:47 at their art of investing class. And that relationship led to this partnership. Which is a great illustration of again the single idea expressed clearly. Why does this exist? This exists to help you build relationships with other high value people. And that opens up opportunities in futures you can never possibly predict. So to come to the event and to build relationships with other high value people, the first thing you need to do is go to founders podcast.

47:09 dot com for slash 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 let me let me explain. So for years people knew'cause I'd go around talking about the fact that since two thousand eighteen

47:25 I have been cataloging all the research that I do for this podcast. And I was putting all of my notes and highlights in this app called ReadWise. I'd go around talking about how great 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 dot com to sign up for this. But what this is is my own internal tool.

47:46 that I use to catalog the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs so I can pull it up on demand. And you just heard that because when I'm quoting Sam Walton, when I'm quoting Michael Moritz, when I'm quoting Walt Disney, Herb Kelleher, James Dyson, all these other ideas from past. Steve Jobs Podcasts. I was doing that by searching this giant database that contains all my notes. All my highlights.

48:09 All my transcripts and now this AI assistant that'll do all this reading and research for you called Sage that I also built into founders notes. And the reason I say this was pulled out of me, this idea to build this product in partnership with ReadWise. And again, this is the the power of relationships because I found out about Read wise, because one of the founders, Tristan, sent me an email in two thousand eighteen And he's like, Hey, you obviously read a lot. You might think this app is valuable. I didn't know it existed until then. And then

48:36 I wasn't till Five years later that I then sent I had talked to Tristan and I sent Tristan email like hey there's actually a a uh opportunity for us to partner here because I keep getting these emails, these DMs, these requests that hey, how can I have access to this giant second brain you have? I would argue it's the most valuable database in the world when it comes to learning from history's greatest entrepreneurs. And so the initial idea came to Tristan, I was like, hey, I would like people to be able to see what I see. And then sin, we've added so many more features and just made it so much better. That this is now a tool that I use nearly every single day.

49:14 And if we go back to that idea, the same idea that that was important to Steve Jobs, hey, we need a single idea expressed clearly. One of my favorite lines that I've ever heard. This is why there's so many there's such a high amount of people that you and I study. That were obsessed with learning from history, that had read hundreds of biographies throughout their career because they understood what Charlie Munger 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.

49:46 The podcast 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 ability to tap into that collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs and use it when you need it. And so there's two main ways that you can search founders' notes. One is a keyword search. If you listen to the last episode I just did on Michael Jordan, the last 20 minutes of that podcast.

50:08 is me going through because I was asked the question. How do How did history's greatest entrepreneurs think about hiring? All I did. Was type in hiring into the keyword search and founders notes, and then went through, you know, there's probably like I don't know, 10 or 15 different examples. The second thing, if you don't have a keyword search, I just ran into a friend of mine who has access to Sage. Sage is the AI assistant.

50:29 That operates on top of founders notes, and that idea. Also came to the I guess not pulled out of me. It was given to me by somebody that was beta testing stage for me. And this person after using it said, Hey, you know, you had all these other names for it. I think I was gonna call it like founders GPT or the names were terrible. The name and I take solace that Steve Jobs also came up with bad names, the Mac Man, for God's sake. So anyway he's like this is After using this, this is not the right name. So you should call it Sage. And he sent these two definitions, and he said, because Sage is a profoundly wise person.

51:03 It refers to someone with a deep understanding of life, accumulated knowledge, and sound judgment. That is every single person you and I study on the podcast. They uh they've had a deep understanding of life, accumulated knowledge, because they've they spent fifty years on their career, and then somebody put all the the highlights or the the main lessons into a book and sound judgment, and the second one uh definition was that a sage is a wise dis w a wise, discerning, or pr uh prudent person. It describes someone who shows good judgment and makes Well considered. decision. So a friend of mine was like, Hey, I was on a way to a board meeting. I needed

51:33 uh some information about leadership. I was asking Sage for how history's greatest entrepreneurs thought about leadership and it gave me a bunch of good quotes that I used in the board meeting. That is what I meant. Founders Notes gives you the superpower to now access the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand when you need it. Another subscriber just sent me this note that Founders Notes is giving him a compounding tactical advantage.

51:58 over his competition. If you are going to spend hours and hours invested in listening to different founders episodes, I would encourage you heavily to invest into a subscription for Founders Notes. It makes the lessons that you're learning on the podcast even more powerful and again, it gives you the superpower. to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. And you can do so easily by going to foundersnotes.com. That is founders with an S, just like the podcast. FoundersNotes.com. Thank you very much for the support.

52:27 Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you again soon.

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