4 ms·

Why? He was lying to them as well.

throwanem 5y ago
> Steve Jobs told employees a short story when they were promoted to vice president at Apple. Jobs would tell the VP that if the garbage in his office was not being emptied, Jobs would naturally demand an explanation from the janitor. "Well, the lock on the door was changed,' the janitor could reasonably respond. "And I couldn't get a key." > The janitor's response is reasonable. It's an understandable excuse. The janitor can't do his job without a key. As a janitor, he's allowed to have excuses. > "When you're the janitor, reasons matter," Jobs told his newly-minted VPs. "Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering." > "In other words," (Jobs continued,) "when the employee becomes a vice president, he or she must vacate all excuses for failure. A vice president is responsible for any mistakes that happen, and it doesn't matter what you say."
- markus_zhang 5y ago
  This makes a lot of sense. When you are high enough you are so far away from the trenches that the only responsibilities are: 1) Making decisions and 2) Taking blames for whatever reason. That's why you get the big bucks. Extrapolated from that, I kinda understand why many senior employees do NOT want to climb the pole but instead staying closer to the trenches.
- mdoms 5y ago
  I guess this was before the big brain genius man treated his fatal cancer with magic beans.
  - vkou 5y ago
    This story is almost certainly apocryphal, but is a good way to assign responsibility at senior levels.
- dls2016 5y ago
  Sounds like the mafia.
  - xenadu02 5y ago
    It means don't throw your people under the bus by blaming them and when something goes wrong take responsibility. When it goes wrong at the VP level it means an organizational failure and/or your failure to understand what your org was doing or your failure to train/hire good subordinates who could handle the details for you.
    - dls2016 5y ago
      I agree but it also suggests that anyone above the VP level who sticks around for any length of time is infallible (otherwise they’d be gone).
- mjcarden 5y ago
  A quote from that excellent management training video, "A Bug's Life": First rule of leadership: Everything is your fault.

> Steve Jobs told employees a short story when they were promoted to vice president at Apple. Jobs would tell the VP that if the garbage in his office was not being emptied, Jobs would naturally demand an explanation from the janitor. "Well, the lock on the door was changed,' the janitor could reasonably respond. "And I couldn't get a key." > The janitor's response is reasonable. It's an understandable excuse. The janitor can't do his job without a key. As a janitor, he's allowed to have excuses. > "When you're the janitor, reasons matter," Jobs told his newly-minted VPs. "Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering." > "In other words," (Jobs continued,) "when the employee becomes a vice president, he or she must vacate all excuses for failure. A vice president is responsible for any mistakes that happen, and it doesn't matter what you say."

markus_zhang 5y ago
This makes a lot of sense. When you are high enough you are so far away from the trenches that the only responsibilities are: 1) Making decisions and 2) Taking blames for whatever reason. That's why you get the big bucks. Extrapolated from that, I kinda understand why many senior employees do NOT want to climb the pole but instead staying closer to the trenches.
mdoms 5y ago
I guess this was before the big brain genius man treated his fatal cancer with magic beans.
- vkou 5y ago
  This story is almost certainly apocryphal, but is a good way to assign responsibility at senior levels.
dls2016 5y ago
Sounds like the mafia.
- xenadu02 5y ago
  It means don't throw your people under the bus by blaming them and when something goes wrong take responsibility. When it goes wrong at the VP level it means an organizational failure and/or your failure to understand what your org was doing or your failure to train/hire good subordinates who could handle the details for you.
  - dls2016 5y ago
    I agree but it also suggests that anyone above the VP level who sticks around for any length of time is infallible (otherwise they’d be gone).
mjcarden 5y ago
A quote from that excellent management training video, "A Bug's Life": First rule of leadership: Everything is your fault.