He abandoned his consumer instincts in favor of a strategy that amounted to, I’ll show you. Recipe for disaster.
This was one of the times of weakness for Jobs, as the writer above was talking about obsession with developing a computer to target corporations, because he believed the Mac hadn't conquered the world because it was rejected by businesses. Of course that was the NeXt computer.
What Jobs did in this case was to fixate so strongly on showing people that he could do it, that he ignored the realities of the market and what people wanted, and simply created a product that was completed rejected.
I've heard a lot of people in business and management through the years say very similar things. They did things based upon people not believing in them, rather than knowing who they were and what they wanted and continued toward their goals and purpose.
While Jobs of course rebounded and regrouped with Apple (AAPL) and brought it back from the brink of disaster to tremendous profitability and stature, it does show how the best of us can be easily swayed from doing what we know to do because of pride and stubborness.
The lesson is to stay with what we know and the market we serve. To abandon our market and instincts to the unknown, as Jobs proved, is a road to nowhere and a waste of time.
Forget about wanting to prove something to people, do what you know to do and you'll do all the proving you need without the added baggage of pressuring something to happen to bring about the proof your seeking to show.
Prove something through your vision and actions that you know your market wants, don't attempt to prove something that has no hope of working just to show someone who doubts you, it's a waste of time and money. Jobs learned it the hard way, but at least he learned it.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
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