Mr. Jobs' vision aside the biggest thing that they have going for them is that they don't try to succeed like someone else. Google has unique strengths and weak

Mr. Jobs' vision aside the biggest thing that they have going for them is that they don't try to succeed like someone else. Google has unique strengths and weaknesses inherent to its culture and leadership. Microsoft is exactly the same. So is any startup. However, for some reason people talk about success in a prescription sort of way. It is true that common strains will exist between companies who have achieved some measurable amount of success, but what works for one of them will not necessarily work for the other. The interesting thing about Microsoft is that they fail whenever they walk outside of their strengths. Moreover they loose resources, time and mind share each time they do something like that. Some may call it a lack of focus, but they seem to aim at mimicking other people's success, and the saddest bit is that they aren't alone. I read about people who want to be Steve Jobs and companies that want to be like Apple. I wish I could explain to them that you can't do that. You simply can't. Apple was unique. Steve Jobs is unique and so are you. So, why don't you focus on what makes you unique? People fall down more often when they are pretending to be someone else. I don't know why but in the lure of the siren of success they kill the very bits of them that ensure their success. What I am trying to say is that perhaps we spend too much time reading into other people's success than to see what is in ourselves. Perhaps that just sets us up for inevitable failure down the road. I can't base my life on the question; "what would Steve Jobs do?". I can't base a company on that either. P.S. - Awesome article.