A recent episode of the “Founders” podcast covered the (free!) book “Make Something Wonderful“, which is a collection of notes and quotes from Steve Jobs. In the podcast, I heard a very short snippet from the book that really resonated with me.
It was a conversation between then-CEO of Intel Andy Grove and Steve. Steve had been offered a chance to come back to Apple and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to or not, but some words from Andy caused him to decide to jump at the chance. Here is the quote from the book, after Steve had just been offered the interim CEO role at Apple:
And I said, “Well, I have to think about that.” And I was thinking about it and called up a friend of mine (Andy Grove), a really smart guy, a good friend I’d known for a long time that works at another company in the industry. And I probably woke him up in the morning, about eight o’clock one morning, and I was telling him about my struggles about, should I, could I do this? Should I not? And this and that …
And finally, he interrupted me after about four minutes and he said, “Steve, I don’t give a shit about Apple. Why are you telling me all this?”
And I said, “Oh, OK. I’m sorry.” And I hung up the phone.
And I realized: You know, I do give a shit about Apple.
And that’s kind of what crystallized it for me. And so I went back there as an interim CEO.
It’s interesting when you hear what other people love or hate, and it impacts your desire as well. I recently had a similar situation happen, but with the opposite outcome.
Too much golf
I was playing a round of golf with a friend last year. I play perhaps 6-8 times per year, and this guy plays 3-4 times per week. He has the latest gear and gadgets, practices relentlessly, and he loves it!
After playing with him and seeing his intense passion for the game, I realized that I don’t really love it that much. I certainly enjoy a beautiful afternoon on the course and I’ll continue to play a round every few months, but I don’t have his kind of desire to spend the amount of time and money it would take to really improve my game.
Both are fair decisions. He loves golf and uses it to help build great relationships for his business, whereas I’m choosing to put my focus elsewhere.
When someone tells you about what they love (or about about what they “don’t give a shit about”), use their passion to help understand where yours really lies.
Not at all the point of your post, but an interesting trip down memory lane. I hadn’t thought about Andy Grove in a long time. Your mention here reminded me of one of his earlier books, ‘High Output Management,’ which was probably one of the very first books I did as an audio book. That was when we got books on *cassette*! It was also before I took notes on books.
It might be time to give that one a second look!
I Blinked it five years ago, but I really should do a deeper dive at some point as well.