Business Book Review: I, Steve edited by George Beahm

Long after he left this world, I, Steve will remain a beautiful way to remember the inner workings of one of the world’s greatest visionaries.

My Rating: ★★★★

Length: 160 pages

Publisher: Agate B2

Released: 2011

Key Takeaways for Personal Branding

I, Steve is a labour of love edited by George Beahm. Scouring three decades of media covering one of the greatest visionaries of our era, the book brings together a collection of Steve Jobs's own words.

Arguably, already one of our modern world’s most quoted people, this careful curation is a gift to anyone in business. A chance to learn from one of history’s greatest legacies. One that made a dent in the universe.

Broad life experiences

Jobs advocated for broad life experiences. He believed the ability to connect dots in the broader human experience was the foundation of design:

“A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

Interdisciplinary talents and the intersection of art and science

Jobs focus on connecting seemingly unrelated realms included interdisciplinary talents:

“I’ve never believed that they’re separate. Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist and a great scientist. Michelangelo knew a tremendous amount about how to cut stone at the quarry. The finest dozen computer scientists I know are all musicians. Some are better than others, but they all consider that an important part of their life. I don’t believe that the best people in any of these fields see themselves as one branch of a forked tree. I just don’t see that. People bring these things together a lot. Dr. Land at Polaroid said, “I want Polaroid to stand at the intersection of art and science.” I’ve never forgotten that. I think that that’s possible, and I think a lot of people have tried.”

For Jobs himself, this manifested in his study of calligraphy. After dropping out of Reed College after his first semester, he continued to attend classes he was interested in, like calligraphy. Though he was fascinated by it, at the time saw no hope for any practical application in his pursuits. Until years later, when his learnings underpinned the Mac - known for his signature beautiful design.

Favourite Quotes

We’re not going to be the first to the party, but we’re going to be the best.

Apple is about people who think “outside the box”, people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.

We don’t stand a chance of advertising with features and benefits and with RAMs and with charts and comparisons. The only chance we have of communicating is with a feeling.

I wasn’t aware that Apple owned me, you know. I don’t think they do. I think that I own me.

Design is this fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me.... Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful—that’s what matters to me.

I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.... Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up. So you’ve got to have an idea, or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about.

The things I’m most proud about at Apple is [sic] where the technical and the humanistic come together.

Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Beahm's edit of Job’s own words is a gift to future generations of leaders. A beautiful tribute, it helps immortalise one of the greatest minds to have graced the world.

I, Steve edited by George Beahm:  Available on Amazon.