Jobs Never Changed His Signature Move

Let’s talk about a signature move in business.

Today happens to be the day a world-famous figure passed away.

Someone once said this.

“What Jobs does has never changed, from the very beginning.”

In a way, this is also a compliment. Jobs himself apparently said something like “don’t worry about other people, just go your own way.” Whether that’s right or wrong, I’d like to emulate that kind of boldness.

Now, to put “never changes” a bit more precisely: he had a business model as his signature move, and he believed in it completely.

He accepted that he might lose with it, and even when he lost, he went into battle again with the same move, over and over.

If you look at the writings of people who’ve seriously dug into his history, you’ll see the logic of it there. So I won’t write it here.

To put it simply, it’s what you’d call a “style.”

So what was Jobs’s style? The answer is extremely simple. Build a product that takes overwhelming market share, and establish a platform.

Really, is that all? Isn’t it more complicated than that? That doubt is reasonable, but I think that’s probably about it.

At the point he made the iPod, how seriously was he thinking about the iPhone? At the point he made the iPhone, how far did he intend to repurpose it into the iPad? When he first made iTunes, how much had he already conceived of the App Store?

I think it’s honestly full of things figured out after the fact. Some people will insist otherwise, that he foresaw everything, or whatever, but still.

Conversely, he was probably convinced of one thing: that once you seize control of a platform and establish a presence, the next step always comes into view.

Without Apple, the iTunes Store probably wouldn’t have gathered this many songs. Without the iPhone, the App Store probably wouldn’t have received this much passion from everyone.

I can already hear someone saying, “See, told you so.”

The effect of increasing volume is overwhelming for a manufacturing business in terms of procurement costs. Jobs gained both opportunity and capital from the iPod, and he used it effectively as a springboard for everything that followed.

It was clearly a different stance from Apple’s at one point in time, but he stuck to it through twists, turns, and repeated struggles, and what he kept believing in eventually began to take shape. Then, as expected, he was able to firmly grab the opportunity rolling in front of him.

Now, after talking about someone so great, I’ll talk about my own small self without feeling embarrassed about it. I remember the time I chose my previous job as a new graduate. The engineering profession seems closed off, but that’s actually not really the case. If you turn your attention even a little to your own possibilities, you’ll find options scattered everywhere.

I realized this watching senior colleagues go off to all kinds of places. Trading companies, finance, consulting, securities, VC, advertising, TV, and so on. I clearly understood that it’s true: if you have the ability, you can go anywhere.

But it took a while before I realized there was something inside me I believed in and wouldn’t compromise on.

Making things and selling them.

That is the “true style of business” I believe in, and I suspect a trap is waiting for me if I ever stray from it.

I’m not very optimistic about where society is headed from here. I feel like a pretty terrible situation is coming. And I believe that when it comes, the only ones who survive will be “people who make things and create value.”

Back then, this was just the thinking of a kid barely into his twenties, with peach fuzz for a beard. Still, now, having gone through all kinds of experiences — not a mix of sweet and sour but forced to swallow almost nothing but sour — my hair holding on for dear life to the status quo, and my body starting to subtly lose its shape, in my thirties.

But my basic way of thinking hasn’t changed. It probably never will.

It’s practically a kind of religion.

But that’s fine, isn’t it. If that’s your signature move.

Originally published in Japanese at https://clazytech.com/2011/10/69/. Translated with LLM assistance and reviewed before publication.