‘Becoming Steve Jobs’

Having spent six years in Silicon Valley earlier in my career, I am a Steve Jobs fan. A new biography, Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart Into a Visionary Leader, contains important lessons for higher education.

Relentless focus. Upon returning to Apple, in 1997, Jobs pared products down to only four, living his famous quote: “Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” Lesson for us: As we strive for relevance and differentiation, more focusing, more curating, and more editing are necessary.

Innovation. At Pixar, the animation studio he owned, Jobs learned about reversals and changing direction and came to understand — as the book’s authors, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, write — that most breakthroughs “result from a long cycle of hit-and-miss prototypes” that are “chock-full of failures and dead ends.” Lesson for us: Working on the edge of change, it’s OK to start down a path and then correct it as long as we’re moving forward.

Inspiration. Jobs once said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” Lesson for us: While it’s important to face up to reality and communicate that clearly within our institutions, it’s even more important to provide a sense of hope and a vision for the future.

Cathy Sandeen is chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.