Steve Jobs wasn’t always GREAT. Thank God he learned.

I had an interesting conversation with a guy on Twitter over the last few weeks about Steve Jobs. It boils down to this:

He believes that Steve Jobs has always been the GREAT visionary leader that the world sees him as now (and the world saw him as such 10-15 years ago when he took Apple back over).

I believe that Steve Jobs GREW into the visionary leader we see him as now (and the world didn’t recognize it until he actually did it).

It’s tough in 140 characters to explain yourself; that’s the blessing and the curse of Twitter. Let me share more here.

Steve Jobs was always visionary leader…

He saw into the future on how we should and would interact with technology. He always created beautiful products; even if the function didn’t always meet up to the form.

In this sense, Steve Jobs was always a leader. He always was ahead of the pack. He made people think.

…but not always a GREAT leader.

Being visionary alone, though doesn’t make you GREAT. Seeing beyond is a large part but in the end only a part of the whole.

When I was a kid, my preschool teacher told my mom I was a leader. I had something within me that caused other kids want to do what I did. That made me a natural leader, but it didn’t (and doesn’t) make me great at leading.

While Steve Jobs was always a visionary leader, he wasn’t always a GREAT leader. He grew into that role. He grew into the person that we celebrated last week.

Here are three more parts that add to the whole to build a GREAT leader. These three parts, I believe, Jobs acquired in the time period between his ousting from Apple in the 80’s and his taking the reins back a decade later.

1. Great leaders are built over time.

Nothing truly great is built in a day. Malcolm Gladwell says in his book Outliers: The Story of Success that it takes 10,000+ hours to be great at anything.

In 1985, when Jobs was forced out of Apple and went on to found NeXT, he had well over 10,000 hours of building a vision into reality, but he didn’t have 10,000 hours of leading a business.

Developing and creating a vision is different than leading people or a business. Jobs realized he wasn’t ready to lead Apple in 1983 when he hired John Sculley to take over as CEO. Jobs did plan to learn from Sculley and eventually take that role over. However, Jobs lack of ability to follow cost him his job and company.

The next 10 years and the fortune he made at Apple gave Jobs the opportunity the time to learn to lead. He got much needed experience.

2. Great leaders are built with experience.

Before founding Apple with Steve Wozniak as the visionary leader (Wozniak was the technical expert), Jobs didn’t have a lot of leadership experience. Before founding Apple, he bounced around between Reed College in Portland, a trip to India, and a commune in California among other experiences.

While these opportunities helped to build his vision, none of those gave him much experience as a leader. He learned a lot at Apple, and then the following years with NeXT and Pixar. Some of his ideas worked (like cutting back everything but a few key figures at Pixar) and others failed (like providing all of NeXT’s financials to employees – including payroll figures).

When he took back over at Apple in 1997, he was ready to lead. He had almost 20 years of experience of leading businesses. He added to his visionary abilities time, experience and failure.

Great leaders overcome failure.

Steve Jobs early success at Apple may have been his downfall – leading to his 1985 resignation.

When you don’t experience much failure as a leader, you begin to feel that everything will work out because it always has. You feel that karma, circumstance, luck or hard work can overcome bad decisions.

Jobs learned at Apple, then NeXT and Pixar that success isn’t guaranteed. Failure will happen, and how he responded to those failures would decide the ultimate success of himself and the business.

Jobs also had to learn to deal with the pressure of being perceived as a failure in the eyes of the outside world. This is from an article Newsweek published about Steve Jobs’ Wilderness Years (between stints at Apple):

Throughout this period, Jobs was excoriated in the press. Pixar and NeXT were high-profile failures. Jobs was portrayed not as a technologist but as a slick marketer, a fast talker whose early success came from riding Steve Wozniak’s coattails. Maybe Sculley was right.

While failure stings, it also teaches. Jobs learned to cut staff, products and expenses when things weren’t working. He learned to work until the product was perfect.

Steve Jobs grew into a GREAT leader.

Steve Jobs always had greatness in him. He always saw beyond and outside of the here and now. He always dreamed of a better way. Steve Jobs wasn’t always a GREAT visionary leader.

He learned. He grew. He changed.

Your business needs you to become a great leader. Will you learn? Will you grow? Will you change?

Here are a few articles I pulled some of this information from. Great reading if you have the time.

• Newsweek/Daily Beast article.
• Wikipedia article on John Sculley.
• iJobs well done.
• 7 Steve Jobs failures.

What is one thing you’ve learned from time, experience or failure in leading your business?