What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.
Interpretation
Focus on a few key products to achieve greatness instead of spreading yourself too thin.
Walter Isaacson's quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on a limited number of key products to ensure they reach their highest potential. By attempting to manage too many products, one risks mediocrity and losing sight of what truly matters, akin to how Microsoft historically produced many adequate products rather than striving for greatness in fewer offerings.
In practice
In a startup pitch to investors to highlight the importance of focusing on a few innovative products.
I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home. He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant
I've always had an abundance of material about the subjects of my biographies.
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The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve, because they saw differently,” he said. "The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan do not encourage this different thinking. The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.
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I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.
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When most people ask about a business growing, what they really mean is growing revenue, not just growing the number of people using a service. Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don't make money from as a cost.
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