“We said, ‘Well, if, you know, if the virus gets out, it’s only going to pollute 5 percent of the garden.’”
Steve Jobs said this when he was working with the music industry to include their music in the iTunes store. The idea is there was a low risk because of the peer-to-peer networks already releasing their music. If that ended up happening in an unforeseen way with Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL), it would make that big of a difference in the overall picture.
For that reason, the industry agreed, and Jobs introduced the downloadable music on the Mac in the beginning.
Why this is important to understand, is the willingness we may need in order to limit the downside of any deal we're attempting to negotiate with potential partners, whose success could be determined by the need to bring it to a smaller market in the beginning, in order to contain the extent of the risk.
What's odd about this specific circumstance with Apple, was its built-in small market share for the Mac was used as leverage to make the deal come into fruition.
Many times a smaller deal needs to be made in order to set up the success of the bigger deal we have a vision for.
In this case, Jobs knew he was onto something (although he had no idea of how big) and used a negotiating technique of limited damage in order to make the deal happen.
With not a lot of downside, and tremendous potential upside, the music industry agreed, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
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