In 1997, Apple was almost out of money. Then, they brought Steve Jobs back.
He’d been gone for twelve years, and the company was a mess.
The team was full of passionate builders, but it was a mess. They had a huge product line, making multiple versions of the same product and using confusing numbering schemes just to stop people from price shopping.
Jobs asked his staff, “Which one do I tell my friends to buy?” and couldn’t get a simple answer.
Coming in from the outside, he had no baggage clouding his judgment.
So he cut 70% of the product line.
It was not a popular decision.
Staff saw their passion projects get axed. Customers lost their all-time favorite products.
What happened was exactly what you’d expect: when you tell people their babies are ugly, they’re going to get upset.
Jobs didn’t blink.
That’s one of the key factors in leadership:
If you’re afraid of making people unhappy, leadership is not for you.
Looking back, we know Jobs was right. Apple’s next big launch was the iMac (you know the one), which became one of the fastest-selling computers ever.
But even if he’d been wrong, the principle is still the same.
Leading is not for the faint of heart.
This launch took Apple from a $1B loss to a $309M profit in one year.
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One moneymaking link
If you worry about disappointing people, there’s a pretty crazy book I recommend called The Courage to Be Disliked.
Basically, it’s about how so many of us live how other people want us to live.
It argues the only true path, whether in leadership or just as a human being, is to live the life you want to live — and it’s other people’s problem if they get mad at you for being yourself.
People like Marc Andreesen, Andrew Huberman, and Steven Bartlett (the Diary of a CEO guy) are all huge fans.
It’s a short read. And if you want to be a leader, this is very worth it.
That’s all for now.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
P.S. Two months ago, I started a quality of earnings firm with Mitchell Baldridge (Bedrock). This past week, we’ve already landed a repeat customer - and our book of business is filling up fast.
If you want quick turnaround on a middle-market deal ($1M-$40M), give us a shout here.
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