14 DAY TRIAL // In writing Steve Jobs’ biography, Walter Isaacson had already come up with an idea to start a new book. Dubbed The Innovators, this new book is a revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet.
In a three-minute segment for Big Think, Steve Jobs biography author Walter Isaacson tries his best to explain why the Apple visionary didn’t have a single, favorite product that his company had churned out, like the iPhone or the iPad. Instead, Jobs saw the Apple organization as the single best thing he’d been able to pull off.
Jobs’ brainchild: Apple Inc.
Walter Isaacson admits that Jobs had a prickly personality, but he quickly focuses on his ability to build a loyal team of hard working people as an extension of his vision.
Asking Jobs what his favorite product was, Isaacson had naively expected a simple, straightforward answer, like “the iPhone” or “the Mac.” But that wasn’t the case, as Isaacson reveals in his Big Think interview.
“I once asked Steve Jobs, you know, what product are you the proudest of. And I thought he might say the iPod or the iPhone or the iPad, whatever, the Mac. And he said, you know, making a product is hard but making a team that can continually make products is even harder,” says Isaacson.
“The product I'm most proud of is Apple and the team I built at Apple,” Jobs told his biographer, according to the transcript. “And that's when I moved to this new book, The Innovators, because I wanted to say it's not just about the visionary, it's about the visionary being able to execute on the vision by finding the right people to be collaborative and creative with.”
Isaacson recounts how he immediately started to connect the dots, realizing that “there were people who were so loyal to Steve they would walk through walls for him.” In the biographer’s own words, Jobs had created “the tightest, most loyal, most integrated team in Silicon Valley.” The same can be said today about Tim Cook and his troops.
The Innovators
In addition to writing the only official biography of Steve Jobs, Isaacson is also the author of The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution.
His new book is up on Amazon in various formats, including Kindle, audiobook download, audio CD, and hardcover. Watch the full Big Think segment below and enjoy.
