Tesla Inc. CEO and tech billionaire Elon Musk agreed with late Apple Inc. AAPL co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs about the importance of building a team spirit that focuses on turning good ideas into good products.
What Happened: Musk agreed with Jobs that great ideas evolve as they are turned into products. He thinks that only a team that works well together can result in a good product and help the team members become better versions of themselves at the end of it.
"One of the things that hurt Apple after I left was John Sculley got a very serious disease. And that disease I've seen other people get, too," Jobs said.
Jobs left Apple in 1985 after losing a boardroom battle with Sculley. He returned to Cupertino 12 years later after Apple acquired NeXT, a company that Jobs founded.
"It's the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell your… all these other people that here's this great idea, then of course they can go off and make it happen."
"There is a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product," Jobs said, explaining how ideas evolve and that the final product is never as it was first envisioned.
Musk said, "Precisely."
Jobs then explained that while it's possible to come up with several good ideas, not every one of them can be turned into a good product. A part of the problem here is that the technology – be it semiconductors, glass, plastic, factories, and even robots – is just not there yet.
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"Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain… and fitting them all together."
A Team Is Like Rocks In A Tumbler
Jobs also gave an example of how this process of converting great ideas into great products helps a team lift itself and shine.
Jobs gave an example of working for an old man in his childhood. One fine day, the old man called Jobs and threw in a few ugly rocks together in a tumbler with grit powder. The two let the tumbler do its thing overnight and when they came back the next day, they found "amazingly beautiful polished rocks."
Jobs said it's the same as converting an idea into a product. While the idea is a good place to start, what matters is the execution. There could be fights, disagreements, and noise, but working together, polishing themselves and the ideas, and turning them into products is what matters.
"It's that process that is the magic."
Musk seems to agree.
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