Book Review - “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs — as if the hype wasn't big enough

With the Christmas mail last year, a colorful copy of Walter Isaacson's biography about the life and work of Steve Jobs came under every Birchie Christmas tree.

That is what the book is about

This question is probably self-explanatory in a biography, so the question is more likely to be: Why this book in particular? Why Steve Jobs? Isn't the cult around the Apple brand already big enough?

Regardless of how you feel about Apple, whether you value Apple's business policy more or less, or even like to be annoyed by the prices, we have firmly decided to learn something from this book:

1. About innovation
2. About falling successfully, getting back on track and not giving up
3. How stamina and fighting spirit pay off in the end

So we dragged our way through the book or audiobook for hours with stuffed bellies and a slight mulled wine hangover to watch: What did Steve Jobs, one of the biggest innovators and managers of recent years, really do differently?

Here is our personal impression in brief:

A lot of information and anecdotes about recipes for success, procedures, methods and character traits was already known — which is not surprising with 762,000,000 Google search results, several films about his personal success story, numerous books, videos and tons of newspaper and blog articles.

What we derived from this was particularly insightful:

• Co-genius Steve Jobs & Wozniak: Much goes back not to individuals or a single genius, but to clever teams and the combination of different strengths.
• Creativity vs. combination: Your own innovative strength is only as heavy as the ability to combine various elements. Whether it's design and technology or hardware and software: Sometimes you need the one, combining ability to bring the right people, skills and solutions together in order to stand out from the rest and be successful.
• His natural feel for the market: Steve Jobs was of the opinion that people wouldn't know what they want until you show it to them. “Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
• An idea requires many attempts: Neither the MacBook nor the iPod looked the same in the first draft as they do today. This requires continuous improvement, stamina and a team that believes in the idea so much that they do everything they can to bring it to life.
• Speaking of exercise, Steve Jobs loved holding meetings while walking. Exciting article about this. In fact, eureka moments do not usually occur when we concentrate intensively on a problem, but when we do something else and let our subconscious mind chew on the topic in the background. Especially in times of lockdown, home office and the like, when even the bike path to the office or even the footpath to the subway is cancelled, you should question yourself this over and over again.
  

At the same time, we also had to realize that likeable is different. And what we could tell from the biography is that many have probably given up money just to avoid having to work with him.

So here are the most questionable facts we didn't know about Steve Jobs so far:

• He has temporarily refrained from using deodorant in the belief that he doesn't smell as a vegetarian...
• He thought taking LSD was one of the most important experiences in his life...
• During meetings, he sometimes placed his bare feet on the table and stood at it...
• He said of his biological parents: They were my sperm and egg bank...

One more thing... (PS: Steve Jobs' cool catch phrase, in case it has passed you by so far): What Steve Jobs has already learned from Henry Ford and accompanies and engages us every day in the consulting business: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

This concludes our review of the first biography in the 55BirchStreet BookCircle and look forward to exchanging ideas with you: Do you still have insights or opinions about Steve Jobs that concern you in the long term?

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