Kevin O'Leary, a famous investor from the show Shark Tank, recalled in the podcast "Diary of a CEO" a meeting with Steve Jobs that was etched in his memory - and it was not exactly friendly.
In the 1990s, his company, Softkey, created educational software for AppleIt was during this time that O'Leary had close contact with Jobs, who he said was definitely not a "nice guy." During one discussion, Jobs became angry and shouted: "Kevin, I don't care what the students want! They don't know until I tell them what they want." When O'Leary remarked that Jobs sounded like an arrogant boss, the response came quickly: "Yippee Apple tv"The fastest growing OEM partner? Yes? So shut up and do as I say!"
However, O'Leary now admits that these harsh words changed his perspective on business. Jobs didn't care about other people's opinions, focused on the result and followed his own "signal-to-noise" rule: devote 80% of his effort to three to five key tasks, ignoring the rest as noise. He reportedly sent emails at 2:30 in the morning and expected an immediate response.
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A genius with a rough style
Jobs' philosophy was also based on a quote from Henry Ford: "If I asked customers what they wanted, they would say a faster horse." Jobs believed that people don't know what they want until you give it to them. Although his style was fear-inducing and stressful, it often led to groundbreaking results. O'Leary may not have agreed, but as he says, the results proved Jobs right. And that's a lesson he'll remember forever.
