Gates, Jobs Form Mutual Admiration Society
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made a rare joint appearance together at the recent D: All Things Digital conference in California. If these two bitter rivals can come to the self-awareness and mutual respect they displayed here, it’s got to be a good omen…The Wall Street Journal (sub required; I’m sure many stories have been written about it if you look) had a lovely story about the chat the two had onstage. As you may know, they worked closely together in the early days of the personal computer, but quickly took different paths. (Full disclosure: I’m a PC girl.) I just found their answers to a perceptive question from the audience to be extremely satisfying. They are very different from each other, and it’s great to see differences appreciated instead of denigrated. I felt their answers were both right on the money, too. These guys are smart, not just lucky.
Question: You approached the same opportunity so very differently. What did you learn about running your own business that you wished you had thought of sooner, or thought of first by watching the other guy?
GATES: I’d give a lot to have Steve’s taste…We sat in Mac product reviews…that I viewed as an engineering question…And I’d see Steve make the decision based on a sense of people and product that is even hard for me to explain. The way he does things is just different, and it’s magical.
JOBS: Bill and Microsoft…learned to partner with people really well…if Apple could have had a little more of that in its DNA, it would have served it extremely well. And I don’t think Apple learned that until a few decades later.
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