Tomas Chlebek One discussion site user Quora wanted to know about people's most memorable experiences working with Steve Jobs. Former Apple employee Guy Kawasaki, who was the company's chief evangelist, responded by recounting how Jobs influenced his view of honesty:
***
One day, Steve Jobs came to my cubicle with a man I didn't know. He didn't bother to introduce it to me, instead asking, "What do you think of a company called Knoware?"
I told him that its products were mediocre, uninteresting, and primitive—nothing promising for the Macintosh. That company was irrelevant to us. After this invective, Steve said to me, "I'd like to introduce the Managing Director of Knoware, Archie McGill."
Thanks, Steve.
And here's the bottom line: I passed Steve Jobs' IQ test. If I said nice things about crappy software, Steve would think I was clueless, and that was a career-limiting or career-ending move.
Working for Jobs was neither easy nor pleasant. He demanded perfection and kept you at the peak of your abilities - otherwise you were done. I wouldn't trade the experience of working for him for any other job I've ever had.
This experience taught me that I should tell the truth and care less about the consequences for three reasons:
- Truthfulness is a test of your character and intelligence. You need strength to speak the truth and intelligence to discern what is true.
- People crave the truth - so telling people their product is good just to be positive won't help them improve it.
- There is only one truth, so being honest makes it easier to be consistent. If you are not honest, you need to keep track of what you said.
How short :-(