Chapter 13 The Origins Of A WHY
Looking back, Steve Jobs said the firing him was the best thing that could have happened to him. I believe it’s because he got a chance to realign with his WHY and restart his WHY. When he came back to Apple, he restored Apple’s WHY with the “Think Different” campaign.
And somehow genius and madness are only separated by a thin line and judged in the perspective of individuals so to lead a revolution, we have to be brave in being different, being in the minorities or even being labeled as “weirdo”.
Like Simon, I like to inspire people to do things that inspire them, and who knows. Together we may just change our little world, creating what is not there. A small good act may pass on to the next person who saw it and he or she might just do the same or further improve on it.
Chapter 14 The New Competition
“If we compete against everyone else, no one will help us. If we compete against ourselves, everyone will help us.”
Simon states that the goal is not to “beat” our competition but to improve ourselves. Simply focus on ourselves, ultimately when you have defeated every other competitor, you still need to beat your own record every time – You are your worst enemy.
Even Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Inc, at 1997 Macworld recognised that they shouldn’t have to compete against Microsoft and just focus on what they do best:
“If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job…and if we screw up and we don’t do a good job, it’s not somebody else’s fault, it’s our fault. So, the era of competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I’m concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry and to prosper again.”
Conclusion
Maybe I am just unlucky to witness that there are more managers than leaders in my previous leadership centric organization. Similar to Team Langley’s recipe for success – We have money, the best people (Scholars, degree holders, etc, who can write doctrine after doctrine on leadership) but somehow I feel the human connection is lacking…
Are we Team Langley or are we Team Wright Brothers of our time?
We all know which team won and Why.
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