3 ms·

So jobs never lied to advance his company? Or is the message more like to not lie at the wrong moment?

by siva7 5y ago

yoz-y 5y ago
Don't lie to the wrong people I guess. Or don't get caught.
swalsh 5y ago
It is perhaps why he is acutely aware of the danger.
shultays 5y ago
I guess the point is "just don't get caught, at least until the lie does not matter. be wary of the stakes when you lie"
smiley1437 5y ago
It’s like being a good poker player. Listen to Kenny Rogers
- stormking 5y ago
  In poker, you'd call a bluff. You wouldn't get mad at the other player and call him a liar.
rexreed 5y ago
The better you are at strategic deception, the easier it is to smell out others who are deceiving. Is it a lie? Is it an exaggeration? Is it a forward-looking prediction? Is it just a fabrication? Does it matter? When you're in the room with someone who is clearly a master of wielding the Reality Distortion Field, don't think you can go in as a rank amateur and beat him as his own game. It would have been better to just say "make us an offer" without making any claims at all, and then leave it up to the negotiation. On the other side, lying to investors these days about revenue, customers, or financials can get you screwed if things go south. Even if it's just in a pitch deck.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Reading this comment made me extremely sad, thinking about all the young geniuses who will be pitching their product to $NEXT_CORP but getting rejected because they didn't copy enough pages out of the Steve Jobs playbook. I weep for the future.
  - rexreed 5y ago
    Pitching your company to be acquired by the next corp is in itself a form of sadness. While exits are great when they have great outcomes, 9 times out of 10 (maybe more), these acquisitions end up providing less benefit for the founders that sell their company than they might expect. The sheer number of fire sales, acquihires, ripoff acquisitions, and more shows that acquisition by BIGCORP shouldn't be blindly seen as a success. In fact, when I see an acquisiton announcement from a company I really liked working with I can't help but feel sad for what I know will be a likely outcome: the death of the product I like so much. Focus on building things people want and building a sustainable company that can grow and continue to provide benefit. Not the tech startup equivalent of house flipping where you build something that's not meant to last in hopes of flipping for a return. When you raise venture capital, especially, these stakes are poor. Build to last. Build to compete. Build to make your customers thrilled. Never build to flip.
mirker 5y ago
To me it seems like there was way more leverage from Apple’s side, so the “negotiation” was really a nicety, which was subsequently reverted. The company was eventually sold at a loss rather than breaking even, so the true market value was ultimately less than what Jobs was offering when the claim was it was worth 3x more.

So jobs never lied to advance his company? Or is the message more like to not lie at the wrong moment?

by siva7 5y ago

So jobs never lied to advance his company? Or is the message more like to not lie at the wrong moment?

yoz-y 5y ago

Don't lie to the wrong people I guess. Or don't get caught.

swalsh 5y ago

It is perhaps why he is acutely aware of the danger.

shultays 5y ago

I guess the point is "just don't get caught, at least until the lie does not matter. be wary of the stakes when you lie"

smiley1437 5y ago

It’s like being a good poker player. Listen to Kenny Rogers

stormking 5y ago
In poker, you'd call a bluff. You wouldn't get mad at the other player and call him a liar.

rexreed 5y ago

The better you are at strategic deception, the easier it is to smell out others who are deceiving. Is it a lie? Is it an exaggeration? Is it a forward-looking prediction? Is it just a fabrication? Does it matter? When you're in the room with someone who is clearly a master of wielding the Reality Distortion Field, don't think you can go in as a rank amateur and beat him as his own game. It would have been better to just say "make us an offer" without making any claims at all, and then leave it up to the negotiation. On the other side, lying to investors these days about revenue, customers, or financials can get you screwed if things go south. Even if it's just in a pitch deck.

smoldesu 5y ago
Reading this comment made me extremely sad, thinking about all the young geniuses who will be pitching their product to $NEXT_CORP but getting rejected because they didn't copy enough pages out of the Steve Jobs playbook. I weep for the future.
- rexreed 5y ago
  Pitching your company to be acquired by the next corp is in itself a form of sadness. While exits are great when they have great outcomes, 9 times out of 10 (maybe more), these acquisitions end up providing less benefit for the founders that sell their company than they might expect. The sheer number of fire sales, acquihires, ripoff acquisitions, and more shows that acquisition by BIGCORP shouldn't be blindly seen as a success. In fact, when I see an acquisiton announcement from a company I really liked working with I can't help but feel sad for what I know will be a likely outcome: the death of the product I like so much. Focus on building things people want and building a sustainable company that can grow and continue to provide benefit. Not the tech startup equivalent of house flipping where you build something that's not meant to last in hopes of flipping for a return. When you raise venture capital, especially, these stakes are poor. Build to last. Build to compete. Build to make your customers thrilled. Never build to flip.

mirker 5y ago

To me it seems like there was way more leverage from Apple’s side, so the “negotiation” was really a nicety, which was subsequently reverted. The company was eventually sold at a loss rather than breaking even, so the true market value was ultimately less than what Jobs was offering when the claim was it was worth 3x more.