Things About Business & Life That Steve Taught Me: Tim Cook

Tim Cook needs no introduction. But during the Steve Jobsian Era, he was mostly the back-seated Apple executive who was hired by Steve in 1998 as the ‘Inventory Genius’ to solve a problem that Steve Jobs (could understand that he himself cannot solve, even with his innate genius) – i.e. the massive piling of inventory that Apple had at that time. Tim joined Apple in 1998 as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations. Rest is history.

In his first ever onstage interview at “In the Hot Seat at D – AllThingsDigital“, interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Tim is open, straight-forward, and candid (watch the video below).

He speaks about his experience of being the CEO of Apple, what it feels like, the Apple community in general, the ‘special stuff’ he can’t talk about, the love & passion for the Mac, the iPhone, the iPad and so on. One of the key parts of the interview is when he discusses in detail about WHAT he learnt from working with (and under) Steve Jobs.

What are the key learnings from there?

‘I learnt a lot from Steve‘, says, Tim. He goes on to narrate what he learnt. Here’s the 6 points he mentions (in order):

Focus is key. Not just in your – running a company but in your personal life as well. That you could do so many things right, and that you should cast aside everything else.
Owning the key technology of a product (replace the word ‘key technology‘ here with something special about you. What makes YOU you? You need to own and specialize on that).
Doing things great. Not accepting good, or ‘very good’, but only accepting what is the very best.
The joy is in the journey.
Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow, so give it your best shot today.
Don’t focus on the past. Focus in the future. Whether you were right or wrong in the past, just move on.

I made a wallpaper out of these points. Extremely relevant points for anyone and everyone – to understand, appreciate and utilize the gift of life. To give it your best shot and being happy of who you are.

Individuals with great talent and skills, often die away into oblivion, owing to lack of FOCUS, and focusing on the wrong things in life. Even companies do; Nokia, Yahoo!, AOL, RIM and many such out there. What makes Apple special, is that core DNA built into Apple and the top management.

To finish with, here’s the #motivational employee welcome letter @ Apple that you receive on your first day at Apple. If you’re running a company, and some day desire to be as great and innovative as Apple, maybe, you should print this and give it to your employees. Do they believe in the core ideas that your company stands for?