
Quit Business school. - raganwald
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/10/some-dude-in-b-school-wants-to-shadow.html
======
edw519
I remember only 2 things said by professors in business school:

1\. "A degree in business is a degree in nothing."

2\. "25 years after graduation, 500 Yale MBAs were asked what was the most
important course. Organizational Behavior was their #1 answer." Ridiculous, I
thought, it had to be Finance or Marketing. They were right. Nothing is more
important in business that your relationship with other people. Nothing.

------
wmorein
I'm halfway through the book, and I have to say I'm loving it. I had pretty
low expectations coming in -- I think the blog is great but couldn't see it
hanging together as a full book -- but they have been easily surpassed.

Barnes and Noble filed it under author name "F" for "Fake Steve" in the humor
section -- took a little while to find it.

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joeguilmette
the last paragraph of this article is advice i've been given many times. steve
jobs history of success is so similar to so many other successful people.

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alaskamiller
What people (or young people, since the older ones get this faster) tend to
forget is: Steve Jobs came to be at a very particular time. The idea of a
minicomputer in your home in the 70's was inconceivable. But within those few
years afterwards, it became not just a success, it was a defining success of a
generation.

And at the same time Wozniac pioneered everything. Wozniac was the genius that
made the designs, the computers, the software, and the floppy drives work.
Jobs was also never the CEO of Apple until later on in life. Ron Wayne, that
teenage kid that helped Woz but I can't remember his name, Mike Markula, the
VisiCalc team, and Jef Raskin have more to do with the success of Apple than
anything a trip to India and commune living can ever do.

But that's not to say Steve Jobs isn't special. He survived. 30 years later
and he's still here. The one that sticks around, writes the history books.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I suppose it is _possible_ that Steve Jobs is the Forrest Gump of technology:
for thirty years, he has just happened to be standing next to the biggest
innovators in consumer technology. I've never met Steve, and Apple doesn't
leak many rumors, so it's hard for me to know.

But if Steve's secret is being in the right place at the right time, he sure
has a knack for finding that place. First the Apple II. Then the Mac. Then
NeXT (which, once rebranded as "Mac OS X", finally became a huge success).
Pixar. The iPod. The iPhone.

I think Steve Jobs is more than merely lucky.

And the fact that so many of the engineers who worked for Jobs are famous is
evidence of his management skill. I've heard it said that the job of a good
manager is to hire the best engineers and then get out of their way. You have
to relentlessly clear all obstacles from their path, give them whatever they
need to do great work (which includes holding them to high standards) and
constantly promote them and their work, both inside and outside the company.

I'm not saying that Steve Jobs is necessarily the perfect manager. I often
wonder whether I would enjoy working for him. (Just as, when I watch a movie
like _Full Metal Jacket_ , I wonder whether I would survive basic training.)
But you can't argue with the results: people who work with Steve Jobs become
geek legends. Woz. Raskin. Hertzfeld. Atkinson. Ive.

~~~
alaskamiller
Apple I and Apple II was because of Wozniak.

The Mac was Jef Raskin's baby, Steve tried to kill it multiple times because
it inteferred with his pet project of Apple III and Lisa. Eventually with both
project a proven failure in the market, he jumped ship to Raskin and took over
the Mac project.

NeXT was a dismal failure. The product was too expensive for its market, it
sold little in its market. They made NeXTStep, true, but due to a bit of
Gassee's inability to market it properly, BeOS lost out despite how many
internally wanted it instead.

All that said though, no, I don't think it's Steve's luck that's gotten him to
where he is. His ability I believe is in leadership, vision, and strategy.
Having seen him in action, I think his greatest asset is his ability to effect
others. He makes them better, he knows what he wants immediately and has the
strategic vision to see it through. His ability to get certain products right
has propelled him higher and higher into upper management. Now that he's the
CEO his vision only elevates and pushes more product out the door. The chicken
and egg problem for others emulate though is: how do you get into a position
of power, or, how do you push out people to push out the right product?

As for Marine boot camp and the subsequent combat tours, I can tell you
without a doubt FMJ, nor any other movie, even come close.

~~~
nostrademons
"The Mac was Jef Raskin's baby, Steve tried to kill it multiple times because
it inteferred with his pet project of Apple III and Lisa."

Raskin's Mac was wildly different from Jobs's Mac. Raskin's idea for the
Macintosh was a sub-$1000 consumer appliance. No GUI. It's really only because
of the cross-pollination between the Lisa and Mac teams that the Mac became as
revolutionary as it did.

~~~
euccastro
Yes, that's why it didn't become any more revolutionary.

