Steve Jobs

After reading Steve Jobs’ autobiography I really thought about how he changed the world and his employees at Apple. Based on the book Jobs was not easy to work for. He demanded perfection and when he didn’t get it he got In the face of the offending employee. There was no such thing as ‘good enough’ there was only one way, the right way. That is according to Steve Jobs. He believed that whatever his vision was he could will it into reality. I’m quite sure the turnover rate of those working directly with Jobs at Apple was very high. Apple recruited only those at the top of their class from the top schools in the country. The best of the best of the best.

Image representing Steve Jobs as depicted in C... — Image via CrunchBase

Even with this top talent there was no guarantee of top performance. In other words high intellect or high levels of technical skill did not necessarily equate to success when working for Steve Jobs. He demanded more, he demanded that you find a way to be great. And if Jobs surrounded himself with enough ‘A’ players Apple was sure to succeed now and well into the future.

Nearly all of those who worked for Jobs cursed him for demanding perfection or demanding more than they thought they could give. Many called him an a__hole to work for. However nearly all said that in the end they would not have been great without him. He brought out more in themselves than they thought they had. Steve Jobs was a Great Coach.

Here in Green Bay we had a great coach who brought greatness to his players and his team. Vince Lombardi demanded perfection from everyone in the Green Bay Packers organization. Although most of his players were very talented and gifted. Vince believed that if you diligently followed a process and demanded more of yourself than you thought possible you would succeed as well as lead to team success.

Teams knew the plays the Packers were going to run, but because they ran them to perfection the defenses could not stop the Packers offense. Many of Lombardi’s players cursed him but after their careers were over, thanked him for making them great. Vince Lombardi was a Great Coach.

All great coaches make their ‘players’ do things they did not want to do. Great coaches know that ‘it’s different this time’ does not work. Great coaches know that if you diligently follow a prudent process you will succeed in the long term

The lack of an investor coach will lead to inferior results. Many investors keep searching for the investment strategy that works best for ‘right now’. The Wall Street bullies encourage investors to continue searching for the ‘new’ best solution for right now.

It has been proven over and over that stock pickers….market timers do not succeed over the long term. Even if you have the best tools available with the best products you will not do as well as you would with a Great Investor Coach.

Your coach will demand you do things you do not want to do, like buy stocks when the market is down OR sell stocks when the market is up. Sometimes you will lag behind the market for short periods of time but over the long term you will succeed. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

A Great Investor Coach will not tell you what you want to hear. Nor will they sell you what you want to buy. They will show you a prudent investment process and keep you disciplined.

So, fire your broker/agent and hire a (Great) investor coach/fiduciary adviser.

During my studies and research I have read numerous times that our economy and all economies are driven by small business or entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs develop new products…new methods… new innovative approaches to old businesses. These small business owners hire new workers at a faster pace than the established, blue chip companies. Entrepreneurs are continually looking for new and more efficient ways of doing business. In order to survive the next payroll they must control costs and find better ways.

All the technology that we enjoy today, including smart phones, laptops, tablets, HDTV, cars that practically drive themselves and the list goes on and on. These new technologies were started in most cases by entrepreneurs in their garages. Steve Jobs is a great example of this. These entrepreneurs are the back bone of your economy as well as the global economy. New ideas are born every day. What we don’t see is the failed tries of these innovators. Each experiment was often followed by failure only to get up and try again.

These entrepreneurs had a vision of the next new method or product and kept moving forward after each failed attempt. It appears to many outsiders that these small business owners were actually only lucky to ‘fall’ into their success. In some cases this is true when the owner inherited their business and did nothing but maintain the status quo.

But most successful small businesses were built from new ideas and taking chances.

But where did these entrepreneurs come from? What was the training necessary for this level of success?

This past weekend I helped out at a snowmobile radar run. Each participant would pay a small fee and run his/her snowmobile/ATV down the track to determine how fast they were going at the ‘finish’ line. After a short time there I began to wonder why would anyone do this? It was cold, we were standing on a frozen river. The High Falls Flowage, boat landing three. Anyway it was really cold. And what was the end result?

Then it dawned on me as I watched the participants tinkering with their sleds. After each run they would open the hood and try to improve the performance. If they failed they tried again and again. At the end of the day some won trophies. However I believe each participant went back and tried to improve their chances of repeating their success or becoming successful.

This was entrepreneurs in training. This is an example of those who have good ideas and the courage to implement them despite any failures along the way.

This innovative thinking and doing is the future of our economy and the markets.