Steve Jobs Launched His Career With One Simple Move — And You Can Do It, Too
Written by
Nicole Spector
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Molly Sullivan
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Shrouds of intrigue cling to people as successful and ingenious as Steve Jobs. There are at least 10 books published about the American inventor, designer and co-founder of Apple, who died of a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at 56. Apple has continued to blaze hot on paths of innovation, but many wonder what the tech mammoth would look like if Steve Jobs were alive. How much more innovative and intelligent would it be? How much more impactful?
Not only do people wonder what Apple and the tech world at large would look like if Jobs were still here, they also wonder what they can learn from Jobs and, possibly, how they can be like him, particularly as it comes to their entrepreneurial visions and ideas. Jobs was generous in sharing lessons he learned along the way, and also provided pointers for others looking to change the world — and get massively wealthy at the same time.
You may be interested in the key moves Jobs made to launch his career — moves that anyone can make. One of the moves Jobs talked about making early on in his life that helped position him for success is refreshingly simple. Anyone can do it — regardless of whether they’re lined up to be one of the most legendary and storied inventors of all time.
Look Up How To Contact People You Respect Who Can Help You
What people (living, that is) inspire you that are in your profession or the profession you’re striving to be in? If you’re, say, an aspiring software developer, this could be an author who wrote a brilliant book on coding. If you’re wanting to explore the AI sector, you may turn to executives and innovators at OpenAI among other breakthrough AI companies.
For a 12-year-old Jobs, a major influence and inspiration was Bill Hewlett, engineer and the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). He really wanted Hewlett’s help. So what did he do? He looked up Hewlett’s phone number in the phone book (these were, obviously, simpler, more manual times, but today you could use LinkedIn, a DM on Instagram or an email to one’s publicist/manager/agent) and called him.
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Jobs’ main advice is to ask for help — and that’s exactly what he did of Hewlett, who took this call from a 12-year-old “nobody” seriously.
“He answered the phone himself,” Jobs said. “I said, ‘Hi, I’m Steve Jobs, I’m 12 years old, I’m a student in high school and I want to build a frequency counter, and I was wondering if you had any spare parts I could have.'”
Hewlett was endeared by the ask — and interested in helping the young techie.
“He laughed — and he gave me the spare parts to build this frequency counter,” Jobs recalled.
And it didn’t end there. Hewlett also gave Jobs a job that summer at Hewlett-Packard, working on an assembly line putting nuts and bolts together on a frequency counter. “I was in heaven,” Jobs said.
Asking For Help Will Usually Get You Help
The fact that Jobs was clearly a very precocious child looking to do something pretty ambitious probably went a long way toward impressing Hewlett. But you don’t need to be an adolescent prodigy to get help from your heroes. Jobs said that if you don’t ask for help, you’re depriving yourself of important experiences.
“Most people don’t get those experiences ’cause they never ask,” Jobs said. “I’ve never found anybody that didn’t want to help me if I asked them for help. I’ve never found anyone that said ‘no’ or hung up the phone when I called.”
Jobs added that when he’s asked for help, he tries to be responsive and pay that debt of gratitude back. Perhaps not everyone you reach out to will be as benevolent as Jobs or the people he asked for help, but if you’re polite, genuine and show that you’re just trying to learn (as opposed to gain something) from people, you’re likely to be met with grace and willingness.
“Most people never ask,” Jobs said. “And that’s what separates, sometimes, the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.”
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