<story><title>Think different about Jobs</title><url>http://james.cridland.net/blog/think-different-about-jobs/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryan-allen</author><text>While you can point at how he conducted himself at Apple and scream &quot;Monster!&quot;, what isn&apos;t mentioned in this post but is dealt with at length in his biography is how he conducted himself at Pixar.&lt;p&gt;He was much more low-key about the &apos;products&apos; at Pixar, he mostly was an enabler and negotiator for them. In Pixar&apos;s early days he invested an awful lot of his then-fortune into keeping it alive, and it was his cunning negotiation skills that kept Pixar from being swallowed by the then flailing Disney.&lt;p&gt;If you contrast his behaviour at Pixar and at Disney, I think it illustrates that he didn&apos;t consider the work at Pixar to be &apos;his art&apos;. There were other people at Pixar who were leading the &apos;art&apos; there and it was all in hand.&lt;p&gt;At Apple on the other hand, it&apos;s completely clear that Jobs&apos; considered the products to be &apos;his art&apos; and his conviction was such that he literally was going to drag everyone, kicking and screaming, to realise his vision. And that he did, in a world of horrible consumer electronics he would not abide, he set out and truly lead the creation of some very awesome and uncompromising products. It was his Art.&lt;p&gt;Imagine if Andy Warhol or Piccasso or any other famous artist relied on the expertise of many individuals to realise their creations. Do you think they&apos;d be considering that all you want is your 9-5 job and your 401k and 4 weeks holiday a year. Nope, they&apos;d be behaving in exactly the same way: aggressive and fervent conviction. Work ceases to become merely a job and you&apos;re no longer working, you&apos;re crusading.&lt;p&gt;In a world of unambitious and mediocre individuals, you have to move mountains to do great work that requires multi-disciplined collaboration. You&apos;re going to upset people along the way but that just comes with the territory.&lt;p&gt;I don&apos;t think it&apos;s fair to blame him for his behaviour. The world needs more people like him: true leaders who will stand up for their convictions, no matter what the cost.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>imathrowaway123</author><text>Hear hear. You make a point that is true as the day is long - one which nobody wants to hear.&lt;p&gt;Not long ago I became a boss and tried to be a textbook good one: paying generously, being generous in general (e.g. vacation/sick days on the honor system), being a real sweetheart, asking nicely, giving credit, supporting their initiatives, giving control… My employees were smart, capable, and hard-working, so I should trust them. So I thought.&lt;p&gt;I ended up having to fire all of them.&lt;p&gt;When they freelanced for me before I hired them, they were on the ball and contributing. Then I made the mistake of hiring them and it all went to shit. They were not contributing anything like the kind of value I paid them for, wasting my time &amp;#38; money, generally spoiled, ungrateful, and clearly contemptuous of me and what I asked of them, never considering my position as the person responsible for their salaries and keeping the company alive.&lt;p&gt;Somehow I accidentally led them to believe that they were &quot;partners&quot; in decision-making, even though they had none of the risk. Not that they acted like partners, of course. But they came away with the idea that it was &quot;our&quot; business, and proceeded to do jack all with it except act entitled.&lt;p&gt;And when I fired them, they were shocked. They apparently spent quite a lot of time bitching about me to other people (while not doing their jobs) but were caught completely unawares that the feeling went both ways. Shocking.&lt;p&gt;I certainly have learned a valuable lesson:&lt;p&gt;When you&apos;re a driven, exacting person, you have to either hope you will find somebody just like you (fat chance!!) -- or you have to &lt;i&gt;make&lt;/i&gt; them. And the &lt;i&gt;making&lt;/i&gt; of a driven, exacting person from the outside is never going to be pleasant for the one being made. (And no matter how much better it makes them, they will whine about it.)&lt;p&gt;What are the chances that the &quot;beleaguered&quot; employees Jobs upset would have done work half as good without a cruel taskmaster? Pretty low, based on my experience.&lt;p&gt;Me, I have to admire somebody who can keep the pressure on another person and force them to do great work. I don&apos;t have it in me.</text></comment>
<story><title>Think different about Jobs</title><url>http://james.cridland.net/blog/think-different-about-jobs/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryan-allen</author><text>While you can point at how he conducted himself at Apple and scream &quot;Monster!&quot;, what isn&apos;t mentioned in this post but is dealt with at length in his biography is how he conducted himself at Pixar.&lt;p&gt;He was much more low-key about the &apos;products&apos; at Pixar, he mostly was an enabler and negotiator for them. In Pixar&apos;s early days he invested an awful lot of his then-fortune into keeping it alive, and it was his cunning negotiation skills that kept Pixar from being swallowed by the then flailing Disney.&lt;p&gt;If you contrast his behaviour at Pixar and at Disney, I think it illustrates that he didn&apos;t consider the work at Pixar to be &apos;his art&apos;. There were other people at Pixar who were leading the &apos;art&apos; there and it was all in hand.&lt;p&gt;At Apple on the other hand, it&apos;s completely clear that Jobs&apos; considered the products to be &apos;his art&apos; and his conviction was such that he literally was going to drag everyone, kicking and screaming, to realise his vision. And that he did, in a world of horrible consumer electronics he would not abide, he set out and truly lead the creation of some very awesome and uncompromising products. It was his Art.&lt;p&gt;Imagine if Andy Warhol or Piccasso or any other famous artist relied on the expertise of many individuals to realise their creations. Do you think they&apos;d be considering that all you want is your 9-5 job and your 401k and 4 weeks holiday a year. Nope, they&apos;d be behaving in exactly the same way: aggressive and fervent conviction. Work ceases to become merely a job and you&apos;re no longer working, you&apos;re crusading.&lt;p&gt;In a world of unambitious and mediocre individuals, you have to move mountains to do great work that requires multi-disciplined collaboration. You&apos;re going to upset people along the way but that just comes with the territory.&lt;p&gt;I don&apos;t think it&apos;s fair to blame him for his behaviour. The world needs more people like him: true leaders who will stand up for their convictions, no matter what the cost.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jronkone</author><text>&amp;#62; The world needs more people like him: true leaders who will stand up for their convictions, no matter what the cost.&lt;p&gt;The true costs of these peoples&apos; behavior is never on themselves.</text></comment>