A person can have the greatest idea in the world—completely different and novel—but if that person can't convince enough other people, it doesn't matter.
— GREGORY BERNS, ix
[Be careful about] what you say, how you say it, and what your
audience sees when you say it. X
What you'll learn is that Jobs
is a magnetic pitchman who sells his ideas with a flair that turns prospects into customers
and customers into evangelists. He has charisma,
defined by the German sociologist Max Weber as “a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary people and treated
as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or
at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities." Jobs has become superhuman among his most loyal fans. But Weber got one thing wrong. Weber believed that charisma was not “accessible to the ordinary person."
Once you learn exactly how Jobs crafts and delivers one of his famous presentations, you will
realize that these exceptional powers are available
to you as well. If you adopt just some of his techniques, yours will
stand out from the legions of mediocre presentations delivered on any given
day. Your competitors and colleagues will look like amateurs in comparison. Xi
Since the launch of the
Macintosh in 1984. In fact, the Macintosh
launch, which you will read about in
the pages to follow, is still one of the most dramatic presentations in the history of corporate.
I find it amazing that Jobs has actually improved his presentation style in the twenty-five
years since the launch. Xi
Jobs has transformed the typical, dull, technical, plodding slide show into a theatrical event
complete with heroes, villains,
a supporting cast,
and stunning backdrops.
Xi
Whether you are a CEO launching a new product, an entrepreneur pitching investors, a sales
professional closing a deal,
or an educator trying to inspire a class,
Jobs has something to teach you.
Most business professionals
give presentations to deliver information.
Not Jobs. A Steve Jobs presentation is intended
to create an experience—“a reality distortion
field"—that
leaves his audience awed,
inspired, and wildly excited.
Xii
Jobs is a complicated man who creates
extraordinary products, cultivates intense
loyalty, and also scares the shit out
of people… Jobs does all of
the following: » Crafts
messages » Presents
ideas » Generates
excitement for a product or feature » Delivers a memorable experience »
Creates customer evangelists xiii
Why
can't I energize my listeners like Jobs?" The answer is, “You can." As you'll learn, Jobs is not a natural. He works at it. Although he
always had a theatrical flair,
his style has evolved and improved over the years. Jobs is relentlessly focused
on improvement, laboring over every slide, every demo, and every detail of a
presentation. Each presentation
tells a story, and every slide reveals a scene.
Jobs is a showman
and, as with all great actors, he rehearses until he gets it right. Xiv
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is structured like one of Jobs's favorite
presentation metaphors: a three-act play. In fact, a Steve Jobs presentation is very much like a dramatic play—a finely crafted and well-rehearsed performance that informs, entertains, and inspires. When Jobs introduced the video iPod on October 12,
2005, he chose the California Theatre in San Jose as his stage. It was an appropriate setting as Steve divided
the product introductions into three acts, “like every classic story." In act 1, he introduced
the new iMac G5 with built-in video camera. Act 2 kicked off the release of the fifth-generation iPod, which played video content for the first
time. In act 3, he talked about iTunes
6, with the news that ABC
would make television shows
available for iTunes and the new video iPod. Xiv-xv
» Act 1: Create the Story. The seven chapters—or scenes—in this section will give you practical
tools to craft an exciting story behind
your brand. A strong story
will give you the confidence and ability to win over your audience.
» Act 2: Deliver the Experience. In these six scenes, you will learn practical tips to turn
your presentations into visually appealing and
"must-have" experiences.
» Act 3: Refine and Rehearse. The
remaining five scenes will tackle topics such as body language, verbal delivery, and making "scripted" presentations sound natural and
conversational. Even your choice of wardrobe will
be addressed. You will learn why mock
turtlenecks, jeans, and running
shoes are suitable for Jobs but could mean the end of your career.
Short
intermissions divide the acts. These intermissions contain nuggets of great
information culled from the latest findings in cognitive research and
presentation design. Xv
Jobs is "the master at taking something that might be
considered boring—a hunk of electronic hardware—and enveloping it in a story that made it compellingly dramatic," writes Alan Deutschman in The Second Coming
of Steve Jobs. Only a handful of leaders whom I have had the pleasure of meeting have this
skill, the ability to turn seemingly boring items into exciting brand
stories. Cisco CEO John Chambers is
one of them. Chambers does not sell routers and switches that make up the
backbone of the Internet. What Chambers does sell is human connections that change the way we live, work, play, and learn.
The most inspiring
communicators share this quality—the ability to create
something meaningful out of esoteric or everyday products. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz does not sell coffee. He sells a
"third place" between work and home. Financial guru Suze Orman does not sell
trusts and mutual funds. She sells the dream of financial freedom. In the same way, Jobs does not sell
computers. He sells tools to unleash human
potential. Throughout this book, ask
yourself, "What am I really selling?" Remember, your widget
doesn't inspire. Show me how your widget improves my life, and you've won me over. Do it in a way that entertains me, and you'll have created a true evangelist.
Along the way, you'll also
discover that Steve Jobs is motivated by a messianic zeal to change the
world, to put a "dent in the universe." In order for these techniques to work, you must
cultivate a profound sense of mission. If you are passionate about your topic, you're 80
percent closer to developing the magnetism that Jobs has. From the age of twenty-one when Jobs cofounded Apple
with his friend Steve Wozniak, Jobs fell
in love with the vision of how
personal computing would change society, education, and entertainment. His passion was contagious, infecting everyone in his presence. That passion comes across in every
presentation. Xvi
As Jobs often says to kick
off a presentation, “Now let's get
started." Xvi [Let’s continue
the story]
CREATE THE STORY
Creating the
story, the plot, is the first step to selling your ideas with
power, persuasion, and charisma. Succeeding at this step separates mediocre
communicators from extraordinary ones. Most people fail to think through their
story. Effective communicators plan
effectively, develop compelling
messages and headlines, make it easy
for their listeners to follow the narrative, and introduce a common enemy to build the drama. The seven chapters—or scenes—in Act 1 will help set
the foundation for presentation success. Each scene will be followed by a short
summary of specific and tangible lessons you can easily apply today. Let's
review the scenes here:
» SCENE 1: "Plan in Analog." In this chapter, you will learn how truly great presenters such
as Steve Jobs visualize, plan, and create ideas well before they open the
presentation software.
Marketing is really theater. It's like staging a performance. —JOHN SCULLEY
» SCENE 2: "Answer the One Question That Matters Most." Your
listeners are asking themselves one question and one question only: "Why should I
care?" Disregard this question, and your audience will dismiss you.
» SCENE 3: "Develop a Messianic Sense of Purpose."
Steve Jobs was worth more than $100 million by the time he was twenty-five, and it didn't matter to him. Understanding this one fact will help you
unlock the secret behind Jobs's extraordinary charisma. P1.
» SCENE 4: "Create Twitter-Like
Headlines." The social networking
site has changed the way we communicate. Developing headlines that fit into 140-character
sentences will help you sell your ideas
more persuasively.
» SCENE 5: "Draw a Road Map." [without revealing the end] Steve Jobs makes his argument easy to follow by adopting one of the
most powerful principles of persuasion: the rule of three.
» SCENE 6: "Introduce the
Antagonist." Every great Steve Jobs
presentation introduces a common villain that the
audience can turn against. Once
he introduces an enemy, the stage is set for the next scene.
» SCENE 7: "Reveal the Conquering Hero." Every great Steve Jobs presentation introduces a hero the
audience can rally around. The hero
offers a better way of doing something, breaks from the
status quo, and inspires people to embrace innovation [problem: Jobs presentations introduce
a hero whom the audience
needs and may identify with. This makes a passive audience. But, the better way is making the audience partners of the
hero. Make the heroic journey interactive] 2.
Steve Jobs has built a
reputation in the digital world of bits and bytes, but he creates stories in
the very old- world tradition of pen and paper. His presentations are theatrical events intended to generate maximum
publicity, buzz, and awe. They
contain all of the elements of great plays or movies: conflict,
resolution, villains, and heroes. And, in line with all great movie directors, Jobs storyboards
the plot before picking up a “camera” (i.e., opening the presentation software). It's
marketing theater unlike any other.
Jobs is closely involved in
every detail of a presentation: writing descriptive taglines, creating slides,
practicing demos, and making sure the lighting is just right. Jobs takes nothing for granted. He does what most top presentation designers
recommend: he starts on paper. “There's just something about paper and pen and sketching out rough ideas in the 'analog world'
in the early stages that seems to lead to more
clarity and better, more creative results when we finally get down to representing our ideas digitally," writes Garr Reynolds in Presentation Zen. Design experts, including those who create presentations for Apple, recommend that presenters spend the
majority of their time thinking, sketching, and scripting. Nancy Duarte is the genius behind Al Gore's An
Inconvenient Truth. Duarte suggests that a presenter spend up to ninety hours to create an hour-long
presentation that contains thirty slides. [=15 hours for a 10 minutes
presentation.] However, only one-
third of that time
should be dedicated
to building
the slides, says Duarte.2 The first twenty-seven hours are
dedicated to researching the
topic, collecting input
from experts, organizing ideas,
collaborating with colleagues, and sketching
the structure of the story. 3-4
Think about what happens when
you open PowerPoint. A blank-format
slide appears that contains space for words—a title and subtitle. This presents a problem. There are very few words in a Steve Jobs presentation. Now think
about the first thing you see in the drop-down menu
under Format: Bullets & Numbering. This leads to
the second problem. There are no bullet points in a Steve Jobs
presentation. The software itself forces
you to create a template that represents the exact opposite of what you need to
speak like Steve! In fact, as you will learn in later scenes, texts and bullets are the least
effective way to deliver information intended to be recalled and acted upon. Save your bullet
points for grocery lists.
Visually engaging
presentations will inspire your audience. And yes, they require a bit of work,
especially in the planning phase. As a communications coach, I work with CEOs
and other top executives on their media, presentation, and public speaking
skills. One of my clients, a start-up entrepreneur, had spent sixty straight
days in Bentonville, Arkansas, to score an appointment with Wal-Mart. His
technology intrigued company executives, who agreed to a beta test, a trial
run. Wal-Mart asked him to present the information to a group of advertisers
and top executives. I met with my client over a period of days at the offices
of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that invested in his company. For
the first
day, we
did nothing
but sketch the story. No computer and no PowerPoint—just pen and paper (whiteboard, in this case). Eventually we
turned the sketches into slide
ideas. We
needed only five slides for a fifteen-minute presentation. Creating the slides did
not take as much time as developing the story. Once we wrote the narrative, designing the slides was easy. Remember, it's the story, not the slides, that will capture the
imagination of your audience. 4-5.
1. HEADLINE
What is
the one big idea you want to leave with your audience? It should be short
(140 characters or less), memorable, and written in the subject-verb-object sequence. When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, he exclaimed, “Today Apple reinvents the phone!"5 That's a headline. Headlines grab the attention of your audience and give people a
reason to listen. Read USA
Today for ideas. Here are some examples from America's most popular daily
newspaper:
» "Apple's Skinny
MacBook is Fat with
Features"
» "Apple Unleashes
Leopard Operating System"
» "Apple Shrinks
iPod" 6.
2.
PASSION STATEMENT
Aristotle, the father of public
speaking, believed that successful
speakers must have “pathos,” or passion for their subject. Very few communicators express a sense of excitement
about their topic. Steve Jobs exudes an
almost giddy enthusiasm every time he presents. [?] Former employees and even some journalists have claimed that they found his energy and
enthusiasm completely mesmerizing. Spend a few minutes developing a passion statement
by filling in the following sentence: “I'm excited about this product [company, initiative, feature, etc.] because it ------------." Once you have identified the passion statement, don't be bashful—share it.
3. THREE KEY
MESSAGES
Now that you have decided on
your headline and passion statement, write out the three messages you want your
audience to receive. They should be easily
recalled without the necessity of looking at notes. Although Scene 5 is dedicated to this subject, for
now keep in mind that your listeners can recall only three or four points in
short-term memory. Each of the key
messages will be followed by supporting points.
4. METAPHORS AND ANALOGIES
As you develop key messages and supporting points, decide on which rhetorical devices will make your narrative more engaging. According to Aristotle, metaphor is “the most important thing by
far." A metaphor—a word or phrase that denotes one thing and is used to
designate another for purposes of comparison—is a persuasive tool in the best marketing, advertising, and public relations
campaigns. Jobs uses metaphors in
conversations and presentations. In one famous interview, Jobs said, “What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's
the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."
Sales
professionals are fond of sports metaphors: “We're all playing for the same team"; “This isn't a scrimmage; it's for
real"; or “We're batting a thousand; let's keep it up." While sports metaphors work
fine, challenge yourself to break
away from what your audience expects. I came across an interesting metaphor for a
new antivirus suite of applications from Kaspersky. The company ran full-page
ads (the one I saw was in USA Today) that showed a dejected medieval soldier
in a full suit of armor walking
away,
with his back toward the reader. The headline read, “Don't be so sad. You were very good once upon
a time."
The metaphor compared today's Internet security technologies (Kaspersky's competitors) to slow, cumbersome medieval armor, which of course is no match for today's military technology. The company extended the metaphor to the website
with an image of a suit of armor and the same tagline. The metaphor was
consistent throughout the company's marketing material. 7.
Analogies are close cousins of metaphors and also are very effective. An analogy is a
comparison between two different things in order to highlight some area of
similarity. Analogies help us
understand concepts that might be foreign to us. “The
microprocessor is the brain of your computer" is an analogy that works well for companies
such as Intel. In many ways, the chip serves the same function in the computer
as a brain serves in a human. The chip and the brain are two different things
with like features. This particular analogy is so useful that it is widely
picked up by the media. When you find a strong analogy that works, stick with
it and make it consistent across your presentations, website, and marketing
material. Jobs likes to have fun with analogies, especially if they can be
applied to Microsoft. During an interview with the Wall Street Journal's
Walt Mossberg, Jobs pointed out that many people say iTunes is their favorite
application for Windows. “It's like
giving a glass of ice water to someone in
hell!"
5. DEMONSTRATIONS
Jobs shares the spotlight with
employees, partners, and products. Demos make up a large part of his
presentations. When Jobs unveiled a new version of the OS X operating system,
codenamed Leopard, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (commonly abbreviated WWDC,
the annual conference is an Apple event to showcase new software and
technologies) in June 2007, he said Leopard had three hundred new features. He chose ten to
discuss and demonstrate, including Time Machine (automated backup), Boot Camp (runs Windows XP
and Vista on Mac), and Stacks (file organization). Instead of simply listing the
features on a slide and explaining
them, he sat down and showed the
audience how they worked. He also chose
the features he wanted the
press to highlight. Why leave it to
the media to decide which of three hundred new features were the most
compelling? He would tell them.
Does your product lend itself
to a demonstration? If so, script it into the presentation. Your audience
wants to see, touch, and experience your product or service. Bring it to life.
I
worked with Goldman Sachs investors to prepare the CEO of a Silicon Valley
semiconductor start-up that was about to go public. The company shrinks chips that create audio sound for mobile
computers. As we were planning the investor presentation, the CEO pulled out a
chip the size of a fingernail and said, “You wouldn't believe the sound that
this generates. Listen to this." He turned up the volume on his laptop and
played music that impressed those of us who were in the room. It was a no-
brainer to use the same demonstration (with a more dramatic buildup) when the
executive pitched the company to investors. The IPO went on to become a huge
success. An investor who had underwritten the company later called me and said,
“I don't know what you did, but the CEO was a hit." I didn't have the
heart to say that I stole the idea from the Steve Jobs playbook! 8.
6. PARTNERS
Jobs shares the stage with key
partners as well as his products. In September
2005, Jobs announced that all of Madonna's albums would be available on iTunes. The pop star herself suddenly appeared via webcam and joked with Jobs that she had tried to hold out as
long as possible but got tired of not being able to download her own songs.
Whether it's an artist or an industry partner like the CEOs of Intel, Fox, or
Sony, Jobs often shares the stage with people who contribute to Apple's
success.
7. CUSTOMER
EVIDENCE AND THIRD-PARTY
ENDORSEMENTS
Offering "customer
evidence" or testimonials is an important part of the selling cycle. Few
customers want to be pioneers, especially when budgets are tight. Just as recruiters ask for references, your customers want to hear success
stories. This is especially critical
for small companies. Your sales and marketing collateral might look great in
that glossy four-color brochure, but it will be met with a healthy degree of
skepticism. The number one influencer is word of mouth. Successful product
launches usually have several customers who were involved in the beta and who
can vouch for the product. Incorporate customer evidence into your pitch.
Including a quote is simple enough, but try going one step further by recording
a short testimonial and embedding the video on your site and in your
presentation. Even better, invite a customer to join you in person (or via
webcam) at a presentation or an important sales meeting.
Do you have third-party
reviews of your product? Always use third-party endorsements when available.
Word of mouth is one of the most effective marketing tools available, and when
your customers see an endorsement from a publication or an individual they
respect, it will make them feel more comfortable about their purchasing
decisions.
8.
VIDEO CLIPS (p. 9)
Very few presenters
incorporate video into their presentations. Jobs plays video clips very often.
Sometimes he shows video of employees talking
about how much they enjoyed working on a product. Jobs is also fond of showing Apple's most recent television ads. He
does so in nearly every major new product announcement and has been doing so
since the launch of the famous Macintosh 1984 Super Bowl ad. He's been known to
enjoy some ads so much that he showed them twice. Near the end of his
presentation at Apple's WWDC in June 2008, Jobs announced the new iPhone 3G,
which connects to higher-speed data networks and costs less than the iPhone
that was currently on the market. He showed a television ad with the tagline
“It's finally here. The first phone
to beat the iPhone." When the thirty-second
spot ended, a beaming Jobs said, “Isn't that nice? Want to see it again? Let's roll that again. I love this ad."
Including video clips in your
presentation will help you stand out. You can show ads, employee testimonials,
scenes of the product or of people using the product, and even customer
endorsements. What could be more persuasive than hearing directly from a
satisfied customer—if not in person, then through a short video clip embedded
in your presentation? You can easily encode video into digital formats such as
MPEG 1, Windows Media, or Quicktime files, all of which will work for most
presentations. Keep in mind that the average viewed
clip on YouTube is 2.5 minutes. Our attention spans are shrinking, and video, while providing a great way to keep the
audience engaged, can be overused if left to run too long. Use video clips in
your presentations, but avoid clips that run much longer than two
to three minutes.
Video is a terrific tool for
even the most nontechnical of presentations. I was helping the California
Strawberry Commission prepare for a series of presentations set to take place
on the East Coast. Commission members showed me a short video of strawberry
growers expressing their love of the land and the fruit. The images of
strawberry fields were gorgeous, and I suggested they create a digital file of
the video clip and embed it in the presentation. In the presentation itself,
they introduced the video by saying something like this: “We realize that you probably have never visited a California
strawberry field, so we decided to bring the farmers to you." The video clip was the most memorable part of
the presentation, and the East Coast editors loved it.
9. FLIP CHARTS, PROPS, AND SHOW-AND-TELL
There
are three types of learners: visual (the majority of people fall into this category), auditory (listeners), and kinesthetic (people who like to feel and touch). Find ways to appeal to everyone. A presentation should comprise more than just
slides. Use whiteboards, flip
charts, or the high-tech flip chart—a tablet PC. Bring “props” such as physical
products for people to see, use, and touch. In Scene 12, you'll learn
much more about reaching the three types of learners. 10.
Most communicators get so
caught up in the slides: Which font should I use? Should I use bullets or
dashes? Should I include a graph here? How about a picture there? These are the
wrong questions to be asking in the planning stage. If you have a tangible
product, find other ways outside of the slide deck to show it off. On October
14, 2008, Steve introduced a new line of MacBooks carved out of one piece of aluminum,
a “unibody enclosure.” After Jobs discussed the manufacturing process, Apple employees handed out examples of the new frame
so audience members could see it and touch it for themselves.
Incorporating all of these
elements in a presentation will help you tell a story worth listening to. Slides don't
tell stories; you do. Slides complement the story. This book is software agnostic; it avoids a direct comparison between PowerPoint and Keynote because the software is not the main character in an effective
presentation—the speaker is. Jobs himself started using Apple's Keynote software in 2002, so what
are we to make of the extraordinary presentations Jobs gave dating back to
1984? The software is not the answer. The fact that Steve Jobs uses Keynote
instead of PowerPoint does not mean your presentation will look more like his
if you make the switch. You will, however, win over your audience by spending more time creating the plot
than producing the slides. 11.
When
Jobs returned
to Apple in 1996, taking over for ousted Gil
Amelio, he found a company with more
than forty different products, which
confused the customer. In a bold move, he
radically simplified the product pipeline. In Inside Steve's Brain, Leander
Kahney writes that Jobs called senior management into his office. “Jobs drew a
very simple two-by-two grid on the whiteboard. Across the top he wrote 'Consumer' and 'Professional,'
and down the side, 'Portable'
and 'Desktop.' "
Under Jobs, Apple would offer just
four computers—two notebooks
and two desktops—aimed at consumer and professional users.
This is one of many stories in which we learn that Jobs does his best thinking
when he's thinking visually.
Whether you plan best on a whiteboard, a yellow legal pad, or Post-it notes,
spend time in analog before jumping to digital. Your ultimate presentation will
be far more interesting, engaging, and relevant. 12.
ARISTOTLE'S
OUTLINE FOR PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTS
A Steve Jobs
presentation follows Aristotle's classic five-point plan to create a persuasive argument:
1. Deliver
a story or statement that arouses
the audience's interest.
2. Pose
a problem or question that has to be solved or answered.
3. Offer a solution to the problem
you raised.
4. Describe specific benefits for adopting
the course of action set forth in
your solution.
5. State a call to action. For Steve, it's
as simple as saying, "Now go out and buy one!" 12
TABLE 2.1 JOBS
SELLING THE BENEFIT p. 20.
DATE/PRODUCT
|
BENEFIT
| |
September 12, 2006 iPod nano
|
“The all-new iPod nano gives music fans more of what they love in their iPods—twice the storage capacity
at the same price, an incredible
twenty-four-hour battery life, and a gorgeous aluminum design in five
brilliant colors."6
|
|
January 15, 2008 Time Capsule backup service for
Macs running Leopard OS
|
“With Time Capsule, all your irreplaceable photos, movies, and documents are automatically
protected and incredibly easy to retrieve
if they are ever lost."7
|
|
June 9, 2008 iPhone 3G
|
“Just one year
after launching the iPhone, we're
launching the new iPhone 3G. It's twice as fast at half the price."8
|
|
September 9, 2008 Genius feature for iTunes
|
“Genius lets you automatically create playlists from songs in your music library that go great together, with just one
click.
|
Nobody has time to listen to a pitch or presentation that holds no benefit. If you pay close attention to Jobs, you will see
that he doesn't “sell" products; he sells the dream of a better future. When Apple launched the iPhone in early 2007, CNBC
reporter Jim Goldman asked Jobs, “Why is the
iPhone so important to Apple?" Jobs
avoided a discussion of shareholder value or market share; instead, he offered the vision of a
better experience: “I think the
iPhone may change the whole phone industry and give us something that is vastly
more powerful in terms of making phone calls and keeping your contacts. We have
the best iPod we've ever made fully integrated into it. And it has the
Internet in your pocket with a real
browser, real e-mail, and the best
implementation of Google Maps on the planet. iPhone brings all this stuff in your pocket, and it's ten
times easier to use."10
Jobs explains the “why” before the “how.” 23.
Your audience
doesn't care about your product. People care about themselves.
According to former Apple employee and Mac evangelist Guy Kawasaki, “The essence of evangelism is to
passionately show people how you
can make history together. Evangelism has little to do with cash flow, the bottom line, or
co-marketing. It is the purest and most passionate form of sales because you are selling a dream, not a tangible
object."11 Sell dreams, not products. 23.
» Ask yourself, "Why should
my listener care about this idea/information/product/service?" If there is only one thing that you want your listener to take
away from the conversation, what would it be? Focus on selling
the benefit behind the product.
» Make the one thing as clear as possible, repeating it at least
twice in the conversation or presentation. Eliminate buzzwords and jargon to enhance the clarity of your message.
24.
DEVELOP A MESSIANIC SENSE OF PURPOSE
We're here to put a dent in
the universe.—STEVE JOBS 27.
Sculley had
witnessed what Apple's vice president Bud Tribble once described as Jobs's “reality
distortion field”: an ability to convince anyone of practically anything. Many people cannot resist this magnetic pull and are
willing to follow Jobs to the promised
land (or at least to the next cool iPod). 28
In Built to
Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, authors Jim Collins and
Jerry Porras studied eighteen leading companies. Their conclusion: individuals are
inspired by “core values and a sense of purpose beyond just making money.” From his earliest interviews, it becomes
clear that Jobs was more motivated by creating great
products than by calculating how much money he would make at building those products.
In a PBS
documentary, Triumph of the Nerds, Jobs said, “I was
worth over a million dollars when I was twenty-three, and over ten million
dollars when I was twenty-four, and over a hundred
million dollars when I was twenty-five, and it wasn't
that important, because I never did it for
the money. This phrase holds the secret between becoming an extraordinary
presenter and one mired in mediocrity for the rest of your life. Jobs once said
that being “the richest man in the cemetery” didn't matter to him; rather,
“going to bed at night saying we've
done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.” Great presenters
are passionate, because they follow their hearts. Their conversations become platforms to share that
passion. 31.
Donald Trump once remarked, “If you don't have passion, you have no energy, and if you don't have
energy, you have nothing.” It all starts
with passion. Passion stirs the emotions of your listeners when you use it to paint a picture of a more meaningful world,
a world that your customers or employees can play a part in creating. 33.
True evangelists are driven by a messianic zeal
to create new experiences.
“It was characteristic of Steve to speak in both vivid and sweeping language,”
writes Sculley. “'What we want to do,' he [Steve Jobs] explained, 'is to change the way people use computers in the world.
We've got some incredible ideas that will revolutionize the way people use
computers. Apple is going to be the most important computer company in the
world, far more important than IBM.'” Jobs was never motivated to build
computers. Instead, he had a burning desire
to create tools to unleash human
potential. 34.
Jobs reminds me of
another business leader whom I had the pleasure of meeting, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Prior to our interview, I read his book, Pour Your Heart into It. Schultz is passionate about
what he does; in fact, the word passion appears on nearly every page.
But it soon became clear that he is not as passionate about coffee as he is
about the people, the baristas who
make the Starbucks experience what it is. You see, Schultz's core vision was
not to make a great cup of coffee. It was much bigger. Schultz would create an
experience; a third place between work and home where people
would feel comfortable gathering. He would build a company that treats people
with dignity and respect. Those happy
employees would, in turn, provide a level of customer service that would be seen
as a gold standard in the industry. When I reviewed the transcripts from my time with
Schultz, I was struck by the fact that the word coffee rarely
appeared. Schultz's vision had little to do
with coffee and everything to do
with the experience Starbucks offers. 36.
Source:
Source:
Gallo, C. (2010). The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs: How to
be insanely great in front of any audience. Prentice Hall.
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