Steve Jobs (41 page)

and he promptly continued with his presentation.
8
The audience laughed and cheered. The media and investors wanted

more information, of course, but that’s all that Jobs would give

them at the moment, and he had fun with it at their expense.

Now, That’s Infotainment!

Most business communicators lose sight of the fact that their

audiences want to be informed
and
entertained. Jobs approaches presentations as infotainment; he teaches you something new

and has fun doing it. It’s the best of all worlds for his audience.

Most business professionals do not smile nor relish the moment

as much as they should. They get too caught up in “presenta-

tion mode” and lose the enthusiasm they really have about

212
REFINE AND REHEARSE

their company, product, or service. Jobs always walks onstage

with a broad smile, an easy laugh, and a joke or two (often at

Microsoft’s expense).

On October 16, 2003, Jobs had finished the discussion of a

new music alliance with AOL and an explanation of the new

iTunes features. The audience thought he was done, but Jobs had

“just one more feature” to talk about. He said it was a feature that

“a lot of people thought we would never add till this happened.”

He pointed to the slide, which read: “Hell froze over.” He said,

“I’m here to report to you today that this has happened.
”9 An
d with that introduction, Jobs announced iTunes for Windows.

The audience laughed even harder when Jobs said, “iTunes for

Windows is probably the best Windows app ever written!” The

audience was thrilled, and Jobs himself was clearly enjoying the

reaction.

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has said he and Jobs loved

two things in common: electronics and pranks. From the

early seventies when Jobs and “Woz” were building computers

together in their parents’ garages, Jobs had a passion for bring-

ing personal computing to the masses. That “spirit” comes

across in every Steve Jobs presentation. A Steve Jobs presentation

is passionate, exciting, informative, and, above all, fun. In many

ways, it comes naturally, because it’s the way he has lived his

life.

When Jobs took his leave of absence in 2009, Apple’s shares

plummeted on speculation over Jobs’s health, a possible lack of

new and exciting products, and potential management changes.

Observers wondered, would Apple without Jobs be successful?

Richard the Fun-Hearted

I have no secret. There are no rules to follow in business. I just work hard and, as I always have done, believe I can do it. Most of all,

though, I try to have fun.

RICHARD BRANSON

HAVE

FUN
213

One analyst, Shaw Wu, had a different take on all of it. Apple

without Jobs would prosper, he argued, because his spirit had

been “institutionalized.” Wu said Apple had an uncanny ability

to attract hardworking entrepreneurs who are looking to change

the world.

PC

World
said that Jobs, a master showman, had raised new

product presentations to an art form and wished him a “speedy

return to health” so Jobs could head up the company again and

take the stage once more
.10

For more than three decades, Jobs has cast his spell on the

world. And whether you’re a “Mac” or a “PC,” we all owe Jobs a

debt of gratitude for a chance to join him on his “magic swirl-

ing ship,” to quote his favorite musician, Bob Dyla
n.11
It’s been a magnificent ride, and if you pay close enough attention, Jobs

can help you sell your ideas more successfully than you ever

thought possible.

D IR EC TO R ’ S N OT E S

 Treat presentations as “infotainment.” Your audience

wants to be educated and entertained. Have fun. It’ll

show.

 Never apologize. You have little to gain from calling

attention to a problem. If your presentation hits a glitch,

acknowledge it, smile, and move on. If it was not obvious

to anyone but you, do not call attention to it.

 Change your frame of reference. When something does

not go exactly as planned, it did not “go wrong” unless

you allow it to derail the rest of your presentation. Keep

the big picture in mind, have fun, and let the small stuff

roll off your back.

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EN

ENCCO

ORE

RE

One More Thing

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

STEVE JOBS

Steve Jobs keeps his audience guessing. Frequently, but

not always, he will leave the audience with “just one

more thing” before he ends a presentation. For example,

Jobs announced that he would return as Apple’s full-

time CEO (dropping the “interim” from his title) as the “one

more thing” at the conclusion of his Macworld presentation

on January 5, 2000. It is the element of surprise that audiences

have come to love and expect. Since his audience expects “one

more thing,” Jobs does not always deliver. A surprise would fail

to surprise if everyone knows it’s coming!

So, in true Steve Jobs fashion, I would like to add just “one

more thing” to this discussion. On June 12, 2005, shortly after

a bout with a rare, curable form of pancreatic cancer, Jobs gave

the commencement address at Stanford University. It became

an Internet sensation. It is one of the most popular commence-

ment addresses on YouTube, far more popular than remarks of

other famous commencement speakers such as Oprah;
The Last

Lecture
author, Randy Pausch; or
Harry Potter
’s J. K. Rowling.

Jobs crafted the speech using many of the same techniques

that make his presentations so electrifying. About the only thing

absent that day were slides. The rest is classic Steve Jobs. I have

excerpted sections to illustrate how he applied his extraordinary

messaging and presentation skills to the now famous speech. I

also urge you to watch the full speech on the Stanford website
.1

215

216
ENCORE

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it.

No big deal. Just three stories.

We again see the rule of three (refer to Scene 5) playing a big

role in Jobs’s message. He draws a road map for his listeners by

telling them to expect three stories—not one or four, but
three
.

The structure of the speech itself is strikingly simple: opening,

three stories, conclusion.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

Here Jobs tells the first of three personal anecdotes. This one is

about his dropping out of Reed College after six months. Jobs

said it was scary at first but ultimately worked out, because it

allowed him to continue to take courses he was interested in,

such as calligraphy. Ten years later, he incorporated calligraphy

fonts into the Macintosh, “connecting the dots.”

It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that

science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

Jobs found his passion for simplicity and design at an early age.

He discovered his core purpose, a messianic zeal to change the

world, and never looked back. Share your passion for your sub-

ject, and your enthusiasm will be contagious.

My second story is about love and loss.

In this section, Jobs talks about falling in love with computers

at the age of twenty and sharing that passion with his friend

“Woz.” He talked about building a $2 billion company in ten

years and then, at the age of thirty, being fired by Apple’s board

of directors.

I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was

that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.

ENCORE
217

Again, passion is a central theme in Jobs’s life. Jobs is con-

vinced that he’s successful because he followed his heart, his

true passion. There’s a lot of truth to it. Remember, none of his

presentation techniques will work if you don’t have genuine

passion for your message. Find the one thing you love to do so

much that you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over

again. Once you do, you’ll have found your true calling.

My third story is about death.

This sentence begins the most poignant section of the speech.

Jobs recalls the day doctors told him he had pancreatic can-

cer. He thought he had three to six months to live. The cancer

turned out to be a very rare, curable form of the disease, but the

experience left an indelible impression on Jobs.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven

don’t want to die to get there.

Jobs always has fun. He finds a way to inject humor into a mor-

bid subject.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s

life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the

results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of oth-

ers’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

This paragraph is an example of a powerful rhetorical device

called anaphora, repetition of the same word(s) in consecutive

sentences. Think of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream that

. . . I have a dream . . . I have a dream today.” Great political

speakers from Churchill to King, from Reagan to Obama, have

all used anaphora to structure strong arguments. As Jobs dem-

onstrates, this classic sentence structure need not be reserved for