Steve Jobs, beyond the invention of the iPhone, was a person with very controversial statements. For example, he asked the CEO of Starbucks to fire the entire board of directors, and the anecdote we are going to tell you today goes along the same lines. And Steve Jobs had many opinions about everything, even consultants. And so the co-founder Apple did not mince its words and shared its opinion without filters…in front of a group of them!
Honesty of Jobs at MIT
It was in the spring of 1992, when Steve Jobs gave a lecture at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). And right there, In front of hundreds of people, he dropped a bomb which surely startled more than one consultant.
With the frankness that characterized him, Steve Jobs asserted that the consulting world lacked the three essential ingredients for motivating work: autonomy, margin for failure and opportunities for development. In his own words:
By not owning something for a long time, you only learn a fraction of what you could. You do not have the opportunity to assume your responsibilities. It is necessary to give recommendations at all stages of action, accumulate the scars of mistakes, get up from the ground and shake off the dust. You should do something.
Steve Jobs compared the experience of consultants with a wall full of fruit photos. According to him, consultants “never have a three-dimensional experience” and “never taste it”. This metaphor perfectly illustrates how Steve Jobs saw the difference between making recommendations and actually implementing them.
A message that Generation Z is getting
Interestingly, Steve Jobs’ opinion on advice resonates with young people from Generation Z. We know that This generation demands changes, like four-day workdays, and seeking more meaningful careers, even if it means sacrificing the stability and high salaries that consulting in the “big four” offers.
Steve Jobs in his speech at MIT in 1992
Something that fills the soul, because Steve Jobs always advised people to take risks to pursue a greater goal. Be part of history. Maybe not big books like him, but being proud of our small goal.
Steve Jobs was not criticizing consulting itself, but consulting which limits itself to making superficial changes without getting involved in the real purpose of the projects. The council had (and has) an essential role. In fact, he went to a university like MIT to convince future consultants to get deeply involved in each project, to believe in what they were doing. And even if they didn’t find it in a big company, they were encouraged to create their own with all the transformative power that only they could give.
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