CHAPTER 5Check Your Mirrors
… it is a wise father that knows his own child.
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
Introduction
If Albert Einstein was the greatest scientific mind of the last century, Steve Jobs is certainly the greatest consumer connector of all time. It is hard to look past him when you are looking for ‘how to connect to the customer’. I don't think I would queue up to buy any product at 5 am on a cold London morning in October. I did that for the iPhone, twice. I had to be the first at work who owned the latest model of the iPhone.
The role of a start-up can be simplified into two key activities: build a product and sell the product. Developing a product is often the easy bit. But when you are out there selling it, the penny drops. This is because entrepreneurs often struggle to connect with their users. When you create the connection, you are able to even change consumer behaviour in ways never seen before.
That was what Steve Jobs did to his customers. He connected with them and was able to create the reality distortion field like no other CEO has managed to do before or after him. Jeff Bezos took the obsession for the customer to a whole new level with Amazon. Jeff created the connection through execution as much as Steve did. However, Steve still stands out for his ...
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