TOP SECRET. How to gain overnight success.

The Steve Jobs Biography

I am reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I’m nearly finished, and I’ve marked pages and pages of fascinating quotes, thoughts and ideas. Inspired by the book, I wrote an article about the brilliance of Steve Jobs as a thief for lbobi a few weeks ago.

A passage I read about the early formation of Apple reminded me of another of my favorite books.

The Flywheel Principle

The business book Good to Great by Jim Collins shares a list of the qualities that makes good companies become great. One of these qualities is time. Collins compares it to pushing a huge flywheel to get it spinning. The first several revolutions are an immense amount of work.

Collins said that from an outsider’s perspective he could easily pinpoint a “moment” when a company’s breakthrough occurs. However when he interviewed CEO’s of Good to Great corporations, on average, they gave a 7 year window of when the breakthrough happened.

Here is a video of Collins talking about this principle:

If you watch this same video on Collins’ website, you’ll see an extra minute of the presentation. Collins concludes with this thought:

Most overnight success stories are about 20 years in the making.

The Apple Marketing Philosophy

In 1977, the Apple II was launched. It was the computer that put Apple on the technology map. A huge reason it happened was an investment in the company by Mike Markkula. Markkula invested $250,000 into Apple, but more importantly took an active role in the company and developed a 1 page document called The Apple Marketing Philosophy.

The paper consisted of 3 main points:

1. Empathy. Apple will understand what a client really needs, wants or feels.
2. Focus. Apple will forget unimportant things to do that which really mattered.
3. Impute. Apple will produce items with a complete and first-class presentation.

Just as important as creating this paper, Markkula also took Jobs under his wing and helped him learn marketing, sales, and running a business.

Apple’s true breakthrough.

Jobs and Apple was successful with the Apple II and again with the Machintosh, but they stalled in the early 80’s. Jobs had great ideas, yet he wasn’t ready to lead and manage a major corporation. The flywheel slowed, and he was ousted from Apple.

When Steve Jobs returned in the late 90’s, he had built on the 3 principles (empathy, focus, and impute) to make them work for him (For instance, while Jobs created for the consumer, but he never asked the consumer what he needed or wanted. Jobs believed the consumer didn’t really know what he needed. It was up to Apple to create and show it to him.).

The 3 principles became handles to aid pushing Apple’s flywheel again, so that by the mid-2000’s Jobs and Apple became the creative genius that we think of today.

Your flywheel. My flywheel.

Most entrepreneurs think a new business or project will be easier than it really is – otherwise we would never try. That’s the secret. Overnight success is hard work 20 years in the making.

While The Collective’s flywheel is beginning to turn, I’m still working hard to get it spinning. You may be working really hard to get your flywheel started, turning, spinning or maintained. It’s possible!

I’ve seen it done. I’ve seen the “overnight” click of success. It’s beautiful. It’s worth the pain I’m enduring now. My overnight success maybe next month or 5, 7, 12 years down the road, but it will come.

I’ve learned a key this year; the flywheel is much easier to push, when I have something to hold.

The why.

The philosophy.

The core.

Whatever you want to label it, it becomes handles on the flywheel to help you push and get momentum.

Oh…and one more thing.

In honor of Steve Jobs famous line at the Apple unveilings, let me finish this by adding one last thought Jobs learned from his early marketing mentor, Mike Markkula:

“His (Markkula’s) values were much aligned with mine. He emphasized that you should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.”

Please, make something you believe in and something that will last.

Header image courtesy of Flickr/Phil Ostroff
Flywheel image courtesy of Flickr/Leo Reynolds 

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