Twenty-seven years ago, in 1992, Steve Jobs came to MIT to attend the MIT Sloan Distinguished Speaker Series. Talking to a room of Sloan alumni, Steve talks about his experience as CEO of Next and Apple, sharing insights and anecdotes about failure and success.
I found the segment about consulting the most intriguing. In it, Jobs highlights the importance of accepting responsibility for your recommendations. Consultants never have to walk the talk, colloquially speaking.
I think that without owning something, over an extended period […] where one has a chance to take responsibility for one's recommendations, where one has to see one's recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes and pick oneself up off the ground and dust oneself off, one learns a fraction of what one can.
The lack of depth in every engagement leads to less valuable recommendations, as he goes on to explain:
Coming in and making recommendations and not owning the results, not owning the implementation, I think, is a fraction of the value and a fraction of the opportunity to learn and get better.
This insight is at my sparrings‘ core. Having walked in your shoes, having dusted myself off more often than I care to remember, we can speak eye to eye.
Have fun with the video now.