The Blue Box
What Made Steve Jobs So Successful? And why does it matter?
I've seen many articles attribute Steve Job’s success to his creativity, love for design, marketing talent, and many other things. But I see something else.
In reading Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson, what struck me were three prominent character traits that Steve Jobs had at a young age.
One story from the biography demonstrates the three traits. Steve Wozniak read an article in 1971 about how to make free long distance calls using a certain electronic frequency generator. He was excited and called Steve Jobs. He was a senior in highschool at the time. Jobs was also excited about the idea and they immediately began building a digital frequency generator called the blue box. They built it together, but the first version didn’t work. Woz continued and eventually got it to work.
Jobs immediately saw the value in the blue box. Needing some money he randomly asked a stranger sitting next to them at a restaurant if they wanted to buy a device that makes free long-distance calls. The stranger was very interested (the rest of the story goes in a bizarre direction). That is enough of the story to point out some key things.
Clearly, the first idea that comes to Jobs is to sell the product. This was a natural gift that Steve would develop and improve throughout his life. In contrast, Wozniak enjoyed creating, but it was Steve who enjoyed selling. Steve was a business man.
What Made Steve Jobs So Successful
In my view, Steve Jobs didn’t achieve the level of success and fame because he was creative, or great at marketing, or had an eye for design. These things certainly made him unique.
In the “Blue Box” story we saw how Jobs recognized value, took action to build a product, and used his natural ability to sell. All of this involved risk.
These three prominent attributes will generally serve anyone well when it comes to major financial success and even fame.
A desire to sell (and start businesses).
A willingness to take risks.
A bias towards action.
Without these traits we might have never heard of Steve Jobs.
With these traits anyone will do well, whether you sell cars, houses or furniture.
Why Does This Matter?
The internet is full of articles and opinions. Most of them are half-baked click-bait.
We might think that if we create cool things, love design, and love good marketing we can achieve a certain amount of success or recognition. I believe this is true, to some degree. But from what I have seen, most highly successful people have the three most powerful character traits mentioned above.
But what if we weren’t born building businesses, or what if we avoided risk, or what if we think too much before taking action? The good news is, these are also skills that can be learned.
The key point is, if we want to achieve a certain amount of wealth or recognition from what we do, we should be open to the skills of selling, practice taking action, and accepting some level of risk.
To your success!
James Wilder
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