Jobs, Creator: The Vital Resource at the Root of Apple’s Massive Success (and Why It’s in Danger)
My goal wasn’t to make a ton of money. It was to build good computers.
- Steve Wozniak
A lot of words have been used to describe Steve Jobs:
Egomaniacal. Brilliant. Visionary. Stifling. Perfectionist.
The stories around him are so familiar to most that they need not be repeated in this context. However, what does merit some exploration is how a small personal electronics maker became the most valuable company in the world to the tune of over half a trillion dollars in total, $200bn more than the next closest runner up.
What does this value even represent? If you sell 200 million widgets a year at $500 to $1,000 each, you are bound to make a fair amount of money. But is that really all there is to it? Apple is worth $300bn more than Exxon Mobile, nearly doubling the value of the largest oil and gas company in the world, a company that literally fuels the mechanical activity of the entire world.
What resource, natural or otherwise, could Apple possibly be harnessing that makes them worth twice as much as the most successful purveyor of the most valuable natural resource in the history of the world? This mysterious resource at the core of Apple’s valuation deserves closer inspection.
Like In-N-Out, Apple is aligned on a single purpose, sending a clear message to its customers: “You deserve this magical device.” Furthermore, like Jiro, Jobs’ obsession with perfection is well-documented. However, whereas Jiro relied on the signals in his customers’ eyes, Jobs zeroed in on the sensations within his gut as his primary source of feedback. In eschewing the direct feedback of his customers, Jobs took a Ben Hogan-like strategy to new heights. Commenting on this, Jobs famously stated that “it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Indeed, the secretive process of developing prototypes with limited consumer input continues to be a defining trait of Apple today.
During product development, Jobs made no secret as to when something was out of tune with this internal frequency. He observed every minute detail of the prototypes put before him. He was astutely knowledgeable about his competitors and the opportunities that they overlooked. He pushed his employees to iterate feverishly until something approaching his ideal was met.
Amidst this manic cycle, it may be difficult to identify a strong positive intent. However, amongst Jobs many industry-churning achievements, his greatest accomplishment was not tied to a specific device or service. His greatest achievement was in reminding the world that quality in design matters. For those that may be too young to remember, there was a time when computers were viewed as strictly utilitarian. Design, which can be a form of empathy for a user’s experience, was previously viewed as a waste of capital. Nobody cared what a computer looked like or how it felt as long as it worked. The result was generation after generation of grey, beige and black boxes. Jobs saw this trend and made it his life’s work to reverse it.
Today, it seems odd to think of a consumer device without at least some degree of “fake hustle” exhibited in the design department. Given the central role these devices now play in our daily lives, it’s not hard to imagine how much more banal our lives would be if no attention was ever paid to product design. The world is better off having been reawakened to the importance of quality work.
That said, is this $600bn worth of quality work? As important as quality is, a master woodcraftsman can also create unrivaled quality. What makes her work only worth a tiny fraction of what Apple produces?
To answer this, we need to go back to the words that are used to describe Steve Jobs. There is one word that is conspicuously missing.
Creative.
Steve Jobs was creative. However, while creativity can be found in a variety of individuals, something else set Jobs and Apple apart: creative intent. Distinct from creativity, which can be a result of unconscious activities, creative intent is marked by a sense of purpose. Creative intent is applied creativity with the desire to actualize. Could this be the missing driver of $600bn worth of value?
Let’s break it down. The iPhone itself is a product of world-class industrial design. But what is its single most important feature? Answer: the App Store. One million plus apps have become deeply interwoven into how we live our daily lives. The best of these apps represent countless hours of applied observation, knowledge, iteration and positive intent. Their reach is unprecedented, spanning the globe while also settling into our living rooms and daily routines.
Steve Jobs was creative, yes. But above all else, he was the creator of a quality platform which in turn has allowed millions of other individuals to actualize their own creative intents, spawning their own billion dollar enterprises. It is this resource that Apple has harnessed in order to generate $600bn, i.e. capturing and channeling creative intent. And if there was ever a more definitive proof that focused creativity is the world’s most valuable resource, look no further than the $300bn difference between Apple and Exxon Mobil.
However, here is the other thing about creative intent. Like any natural resource, unless it is nurtured and replenished, it can also be exhausted. Now that the app ecosystem has matured, the creative energy that it once inspired has begun to reach a plateau. In its place, a new impulse fills the void, the anti-matter to its matter.
Consumptive.
When the iPhone was first created, it was a curiosity. It captured our imagination as to what was possible in a handheld device. Then, as millions of users adopted the iPhone as their daily driver for phone calls, internet access and music playback, it became a tool.
Beyond that, as the concept of apps gained ground, the value of the iPhone multiplied a hundred-fold. It was not only a phone, but a streaming media device, a social media command center, a beacon for car services, a navigation device, a gaming device and so on and on.
As the initial burst of creativity founds its way into the lives of millions of users around the world, newfound relationships were established between high quality sources and their users. So valuable were these newfound relationships that several new billion dollar industries have blossomed from the app economy. The iPhone had become a platform.
But unfortunately that is not where the story ends. We now find ourselves in another chapter. While the iPhone generated an initial burst of creativity from its developers and in turn a step change in productivity from its users, this initial explosion is beginning to wane. As usage reaches a saturation point, smartphone growth will slow. For example, IDC research predicts that smart phone growth will slow to single digits by 2017 (down from nearly 40% year over year in 2013).
In addition to the maturation of the market, the profile of usage is also shifting as evidenced by the most popular apps today. 46 of the top 100 free apps in the app store are either games or intended for music/video consumption.
Finally, the evolution of the iPhone’s impact may best be observed as we go about our daily lives; in lines at the coffee shop, waiting in the airport, wherever there is dead time, you will see the now familiar posture of smartphone consumption, i.e. phone up, head down.
Consumption and creativity are two stages of the same cycle just as inhaling and exhaling are two halves of the same breath. Consumption is a natural counterpart to creativity. However, when consumption of things, even those of high quality, becomes one’s reason for living, it leaves no room for creativity, because, as with breathing, you simply can’t inhale and exhale at the same time.
Gradually, insidiously, as more users look to the iPhone as a source of time-wasting diversions, the platform that Steve Jobs built becomes less a channel for creativity and more a channel for consumption. When this happens, the beautiful network effect at the core of the iPhone’s app economy, where exceptional creative intent in turn inspires more creative impulses, will begin to slow and ultimately reverse.
With this reversal, Apple’s most vital resource will begin to seep outside its control. This will not result in a fateful crash but it will be no less dangerous to Apple’s future. To avoid this fate, Apple must refocus on what made it great, building platforms that inspire and empower others to realize their creative intents. The fact that even Apple, a product of a legendary creative force, can face this challenge at the apex of its success highlights the difficulty of sustaining this impulse. Long-term creative intent requires constant mindfulness and attention no matter whom you are or what you have achieved.
Afterword.
Every human activity, whether consciously performed or not, falls somewhere on the spectrum of creation and consumption. In addition, forms found in nature are constantly created, consumed and transformed. However, there is a vital distinction between our actions and those found more broadly in nature: intent.
Humans uniquely share the ability to direct our intent towards one impulse or the other. Do you force yourself to sit down and write a short story or do you binge on Netflix? Do you practice your violin or do you snapchat for another hour? Indeed, the constant struggle between the instant gratification of consumption and long-term fulfillment of creativity is one of the most fundamental choices that makes us human. And the stakes have never been higher.
Over time, how each person approaches these minute to minute decisions informs where they fall on this continuum. This wavering balance, the constant interplay between creative and consumptive intent, is at the root of where humanity progresses going forward.
I am a firm believer that people are inherently creative. From a very early age, our minds begin to wander as to the possibilities, the what if’s and the why’s. Walk into any preschool in the world and you will see a wealth of imagination. Somewhere along the line, it’s not that the creativity dies, but its intent gets dispersed or redirected towards unrewarding ends.
Our problem isn’t progression, it’s location and direction. We move, but with no intent. We stand, but with no context. Today, if we are geographically lost, we look at our smartphones. If we are existentially lost, we are not so lucky. If only there was a compass or a map in this respect…
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