Former Apple CEO John Sculley is currently in the currently in the country to launch Obi Mobile range of smartphones. Sculley addressed technology players and enthusiasts at the iHub during a fireside chat where he gave a candid talk on what it takes to scale a start-up. Sculley dived into details about his history working for musings.
Advise to Entrepreneurs and Start ups
“Entrepreneurs need to be curious in getting their ideas to play and always challenge themselves to succeed”, Sculley emphasized. The Former CEO also talked of the need for the entrepreneurs not to be caught in their success and work towards creating opportunities through solving local problems. “The opportunities for today are not those of tomorrows work, work towards creating an infrastructure on the platforms of today to solve the problems of tomorrow”, he added citing examples of Microsoft and Intel that were late to adopt to the market needs with mobile market and instead focused on PC and Chip markets. Entrepreneurs ought to move with urgency, focus and curiosity to succeed.
Relationship With Steve Jobs and Success in Life
Sculley attributed Job’s success to hard work and a little bit of luck. “Timing is everything. Connect dots across different domains if you want to disrupt”, he said of his time managing Pepsi Co food division which he was able to turn from a loss making venture into an organization with 300 million dollars revenue. He also noted the importance of communication with the intent of improving domain expertise by bringing together different players with different abilities to influence success.
These are some of the attributes leading to his success. He spoke candidly of Steve Jobs calling him a genius and hardworking individual who sacrificed everything to make a dent in the world. He also credited Steve Jobs with thinking ahead of his time to create solutions that will be used for the future.
On His Biggest Mistakes
Seeing things from one angle which hindered success at certain points in his professional life. “You don’t understand things well till you see them from a different angle” he said. If you are established you have to sacrifice success in order to move to the next point of success which he says of his days at Apple. Judgement by different individuals was another mistake in which people judge both you and your abilities before they can trust you which was a main cause of the fallout between him and the Apple founder.
On Luck
“Always have an insatiable curiosity in life. Picture everything in your head and things will fall into place”, he finalized.
