Steve Jobs' lesson about Storytelling
What else can be said about Steve Jobs that hasn’t been said before. It goes without saying that his passion and creativity is still felt today, and has been heralded as the world's greatest business storyteller. Every single Storytelling workshop I do, I ask: “Who is your favorite storyteller?” Guess who comes up every single time?
A quote that has stuck with me is from Steve Jobs himself. It is from 1994, when he was CEO of Pixar:
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come…”
Aside from the inspiration this quote gives to any aspiring storyteller, the context and timing of this quote also offers a valuable lesson for us all. Behind this quote is the fact that Steve Jobs wasn’t always a great storyteller.
One of his most notorious early failures was The Lisa computer. In 1978, Jobs was trying to create the first computer to use a graphical user interface aimed at businesses. There were so many development and technical problems along the way that by the time it came to market, the price was set at almost $10,000 ($25,000 in today’s money).
While the price made it exceptionally difficult to compete with IBM’s personal computer, Jobs felt the superior capabilities and advanced features of The Lisa would be enough to convince the business community to make the investment.
Jobs’ strategy was to advertise The Lisa by taking out an eight-page ad in the Wall Street Journal. This ad was a laundry list of the features and capabilities - the hard drive, the interface, the memory and page after page of technical jargon.
Here is the full ad: https://guidebookgallery.org/ads/magazines/lisa/introducinglisa
This ad did not help sell units (Apple sold 10k units, nowhere near the amount needed to cover just the development costs). It was uninspired, with no story being told.
It did not address the business audience or speak in their language
It did not address any of the needs, wants or concerns of the audience for The Lisa
It did not make the audience imagine themselves using this machine
To sum up, it was a classic marketing blunder of talking about features not focusing on solutions through the story.
Now let me finish that quote from Steve Jobs in 1994
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come… and Disney has a monopoly on the storyteller business. You know what? I am tired of that bullshit, I am going to be the next storyteller.”
That Steve Jobs quote came a full year before Pixar’s first animated feature - Toy Story - came out. Pixar was not even close to being a household name.
Therein lies the lesson for any aspiring storyteller: Steve Jobs didn’t start out as a great storyteller, he made the choice to be one.
After Jobs was removed from Apple in 1985, he began exploring new areas to invest his time and money into, eventually becoming CEO and majority stakeholder at Pixar. Under Jobs, Pixar went on to set the standard for animated storytelling - winning 10 Best Animated Feature Oscars. Pixar’s 22 rules of storytelling has become essential reading for anyone looking to improve their storytelling skills.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as CEO, he continued to develop his storytelling skills. 1997 also happened to be the year that Apple unveiled its icon slogan: Think Different. While not the mastermind behind the slogan, his impact was immediately felt:
“While Steve Jobs didn’t create the advertising concepts, he does deserve an incredible amount of credit. He was fully responsible for ultimately pulling the trigger on the right ad campaign from the right agency, and he used his significant influence to secure talent and rally people like no one I've ever seen before. Without Steve Jobs there's not a shot in hell that a campaign as monstrously big as this one would get even close to flying off the ground...it got an audience that once thought of Apple as semi-cool, but semi-stupid to suddenly think about the brand in a whole new way”
It was in 2001 that Jobs’ new storytelling skills really shine. Leading up to the iPod launch, he personally managed the process of deciding on both the name and the message of the product.
What’s most interesting about the lead up to launch is that Steve decided on the story he wanted to tell before Apple had even named the product.
“1,000 songs in your pocket”
This is one of the most genius stories ever told in marketing. At the time it launched I was still using a clunky, awkward discman and I carried a sleeve full of CDs. This simple message resonated with me, and millions of others because of a few simple reasons:
It focused 100% on the customer - YOUR pocket
It addressed the problems that the customer faced - instead of carrying around clunky items and CDs, it was 1000 songs in your pocket
It allowed the customer to tell their own story - wherever you are, you have 1000 songs - it didn’t matter if you were commuting, jogging, laying on your couch
Over the years, others came out to market with more advanced products - ones with better battery life, higher resolution screens, even more memory (cough, Zune, cough) - but not one came close to capturing the imagination of the customer.
Without the success of the iPod, it is difficult to see how the iPhone and iPad would be as prevalent as they are today, and how Apple would be the most valuable tech company in the world. Yes, Steve Jobs is a genius. Yes, ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ is genius. But this wasn’t because Steve Jobs had an inherent ability no one else had - it was because he set the goal to be a great storyteller and kept working to become one. What’s to stop anyone else from doing the same?
