Lee Clow, the creative mastermind behind Apple's Think Different commercials wrote this of Steve Jobs when he passed away:
He was the most amazing person I have ever known.
He was a genius.
He was an innovator.
He was the best client we ever had.
A new article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell suggests that Steve wasn't the true innovator. He was actually a tweaker. He know how to encourage, influence or intimidate people to create what it took to fulfill his
vision of the perfect product.
That wasn't always the smoothest process. An exchange between Steve and VIncent, the copywriter on the first iPad commercials.
“Well, what do you want?” Vincent shot back. “You’ve not been able to tell me what you want.”
“I don’t know,” Jobs said. “You have to bring me something new. Nothing you’ve shown me is even close.” Vincent argued back and suddenly Jobs went ballistic. “He just started screaming at me,” Vincent recalled. Vincent could be volatile himself, and the volleys escalated.
When Vincent shouted, “You’ve got to tell me what you want,” Jobs shot back, “You’ve got to show me some stuff, and I’ll know it when I see it.”
I'll know when I see it.