Rich Kao

By John Lily    

STEVE JOBS

Like many of us, I’ve been thinking a lot about Steve Jobs the last few days — thinking about the man and his legacy. I’ve been having some trouble even understanding the way I feel, let alone being able to put it into words. Lots of folks have asked me what I think, and have been surprised that I haven’t tweeted or blogged about it yet. So here’s a first shot.

I’m finding my feelings to be pretty complex, which I guess isn’t too surprising given who he was. But for a man I’ve never met, I’m a little surprised about how much of my thinking he’s affected, and how many competing feelings I’ve got.

But some of them are pretty simple.

As a designer, I think it’s impossible to feel anything but pure, unadulterated joy that Steve existed at all. And I really mean that: thank god for him, he changed so much. He wasn’t the first to care about design in technology, and he won’t be the last, but he moved things so much.

He made beautiful software and hardware like nobody had ever seen before. Crucially, he built tools that helped — or completely enabled, really — creatives make their own beautiful work that enriched the world. He completely and utterly validated the view that design could be immensely valuable economically, not just culturally.

Mostly he made it acceptable — desirable! — to believe in and practice great, human-centered design in our work and lives. What a gift.

As a people manager and leader, I really struggled with how to think about him. The stories of how brutal he could be on the people around him — employees, competitors, and everyone else — are legion, and they’re not apocryphal. He could be deeply dehumanizing and belittling to the people around him. Like a lot of people of great vision, which he surely was, he did it all in the name of greatness, of perfection — but I have enough close friends who have been in the line of Jobs’ fire to know how personally destructive it could be, and as a manager I have a hard time with it.

On the other hand, he was an unbelievable leader and motivator.

It turns out that I worked at Apple ATG (Advanced Technology Group) in 1994/5 when I was a grad student at Stanford, and then again for all of 1997, when I moved back here from Trilogy.

I remember being at a talk he gave shortly after returning in 1997 as Interim CEO. A bunch of us employees (I was at ATG at the time) were in Town Hall in Building 4 at Infinite Loop to hear him, and he was fired up. Talked a lot about how Apple was going to completely turn things around and become great.

It was a tough time at Apple — we were trading below book value on the market — our enterprise value was actually less than our cash on hand. And the rumors were everywhere that we were going to be acquired by Sun. Someone in the audience asked him about Michael Dell’s suggestion in the press a few days previous that Apple should just shut down and return the cash to shareholders, and as I recall, Steve’s response was: “Fuck Michael Dell.” Good god, what a message from a CEO! He followed it up by admitting that the stock price was terrible (it was under $10, I think — pretty sure it was under $2 split-adjusted), and that what they were going to do was reissue everyone’s options on the low price, but with a new 3 year vest. He said, explicitly: “If you want to make Apple great again, let’s get going. If not, get the hell out.” I think it’s not an overstatement to say that just about everyone in the room loved him at that point, would have followed him off a cliff if that’s where he led.

He was also a gifted, gifted operator. One of the struggles we were going through when he came back was that Apple was about the leakiest organization in history — it had gotten so bad that people were cavalier about it. In the face of all those leaks, I remember the first all company e-mail that Steve sent around after becoming Interim CEO again — he talked in it about how Apple would release a few things in the coming week, and a desire to tighten up communications so that employees would know more about what was going on — and how that required more respect for confidentiality. That mail was sent on a Thursday; I remember all of us getting to work on Monday morning and reading mail from Fred Anderson, our then-CFO, who said basically: “Steve sent mail last week, he told you not to leak, we were tracking everyone’s mail, and 4 people sent the details to outsiders. They’ve all been terminated and are no longer with the company.”

Well. If it wasn’t clear before that the Amelio/Spindler/Sculley days of Apple were over, it was crystal clear then, and good riddance.

As a leader of people, you have to respect how much he (and more importantly, his teams) accomplished. But I struggle with some of the ways that he led, and how they affected good people.

Still.

I’m a little uncomfortable with the outpouring of sentiment about people who want to be like Steve. There’s a sort of beatification going on that I think misses the point. He was never a nostalgic man at all, and I can’t help but feel like he would think this posthumous attention was, in a lot of ways, a waste — seems like he’d have wanted people to get back to inventing.

On Twitter yesterday Naval nailed it, as he often does: “I never met my greatest mentor. I wanted so much to be like him. But, his message was the opposite. Be yourself, with passionate intensity.”

That’s it, I think — that’s the biggest message from Jobs’ life. Don’t try to be like Steve. Don’t try to be like anyone.

Be yourself and work as hard as you can to bring wonderful things into the world. Figure out how you want to contribute and do that, in your own way, on your own terms, as hard as you can, as much as you can, as long as you can.

His most lasting message, I hope, won’t be about technology or management or media or communications or even design. The work he did in those areas certainly matters and will continue to — impossible to ignore it.

Still, I think it’s not the main thing, the essential thing.

I hope the message that people really take, really internalize is that being yourself, as hard as you can, is the way to have important and lasting impact on our world. That might be in the context of technology. It might be in the context of technology, or the arts, or sports, or government, or social justice — or even in the context of your family and close friends.

It almost doesn’t matter. The thing that matters most is to figure out what’s important to you, what’s core to you, and do that. Be that. And do it as well as you possibly can, every single day.

By Pastor James MacDonald

My oldest son, Luke, sent me a link the other day that quoted A.W. Tozer and James Kennedy (both wonderful Christian leaders in their day). Both men believed that many, if not most, professing believers they encountered around the country were not actually saved. They were deeply troubled by the distortions of the gospel that were the result of trying to get the gospel to more people. Well intentioned yes, but eternally dangerous for the souls of men and woman who had not heard the whole message. The article prompted me to look back in my file for something I remembered writing a while back. Here it is . . . What gospel have you heard and believed?

1) The Cake Mix Gospel: if we leave out key ingredients our souls will never “rise” to God. We don’t need the message reduced to some irreducible elements, we need the whole gospel. You don’t expect your car to run without all the parts. You don’t expect your body to function without all the organs working properly. You don’t expect a cake to taste right if it’s rushed and readied without the right ingredients. The gospel without repentance is not the gospel. Acts 18:26, “And he [Apollos] began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”

2) The Cultural Gospel: Skip the postmodern sales job and go for the heart where human need never changes. Understanding the ‘culture’ is much less important than knowing what the Bible says about every human heart separated from God. We don’t need slick sales people giving out the gospel. We need bold, Spirit-filled messengers with a deep heart of compassion for lost people. The gospel without authoritative/binding truth is not the gospel. Acts 17:30, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

3) The Cool Gospel: Jesus transcends fashion trends. Marketing Jesus is cheap and powerless. We don’t need to ‘spin’ the message we need to say it. We need to stop shaping Jesus in some misguided effort to make Him appealing. Jesus doesn’t need to be like us; we need to be like Him. The gospel wrapped in stylistic packaging is not the gospel. Revelation 3:17 “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

4) The Carnal Gospel: What Jesus can do for me: health, wealth, always happy, never hurting? Jesus solves those issues, but not the way we may think. He’ll change what you want a lot more than what you have. The selfish gospel that promises things Jesus doesn’t promise is a lie and is sentencing the lost who listen to a shocking surprise in eternity. The gospel of “me before Jesus” is not the gospel. Mark 8:35 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

5) The Careful Gospel: Let’s not upset anybody, just keep ‘em comfortable and coming back, There’s lots of time for folks to figure it out. The gospel of “get them to church, and in time everything will come together as long as we don’t offend them” is a dangerous gospel. Well intentioned is not enough. The gospel without urgency is not the gospel. 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION.”

Do you understand the implications of a distorted gospel? What horror to imagine many people thinking they are ready to meet God only to find out they never were because they believed a distorted gospel. Matthew 7 predicts just a scene of shocking surprise. Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.”



Pastors, here's a quick review you can use to encourage your people as the year winds up.  Fellow Christians, here's a tune-up if your worship doesn't include your finances.

1. I want a tax benefit. (practical)

2. Following what my parents did. (tradition)

3. I want to include God in my finances. (maturity)

4. I want to break greed in my life. (treasure)

5. I want to break fear in my life. (faith)

6. I love my church & want to support it.  (family)

7. Scriptures says to do it. (obedience)

8. I want to advance the kingdom. (vision)

9. Stewardship – it’s not my money. (Lordship)

10. I love God - it’s part of my worship. (affection)

It could be argued that a church lives or dies by the pulpit.  So crucial is preaching to the life and health of the church that the originals apostles deliberately chose NOT to engage in compassion ministry in order to focus on prayer & the ministry of the word (Acts 6:1-4).  This ministry of feeding and doctrine is indeed one of the highest calls a person could receive (Rom. 9:13-15).  Truly discerned, the call to be a voice for God, a carrier of his burdens in word and speech is a fearful thing.  Were it not for the grace of God, who could be up for such a task?

Of all the ministry responsibilities involved in leading a church, there is no other single activity I've been involved in that can induce such exhiliration or depression as preaching.  As we all know, public speaking is one of the greatest fears known to mankind.  Even more than death according to many surveys.

Prior to my ministry call, I was involved in lots of public speaking; presenting results, pitching for grants, and speaking to top brass for project approvals.  That kind of speaking was easy, in part because it's the transmission of information, versus speaking for life change.

Part of the tribulation in preaching is the acceptance / rejection dynamic one goes through as people listen to your messages.  Not unlike those who try out a new restaurant, there is a constant and instant evaluation of "the food served."  Was it good?  Was it good enough to come back?  Become a repeat customer?  Course if people return, that's exhilirating.  If they don't that's depressing.

But take away the human dynamic, human emotion part, and there is nothing like powerful, regular life-giving preaching.  It's so crucial for church plants.  Yea, heaven-sent preaching can plants churches overnight and cause it to grow exponentially in a very short time.  It encourages, lifts up, challenges, enlightens, informs, and moves people toward God.   Consistency in the preaching is part science, part art, part skill, and a big dose of dependance.

There are clear rules of communication that can be followed (and should be followed) to consistenly engage an audience.  There's no reason to reiterate them here with so many great resources out there, but to mention my top four communication convictions in passing:

1) Clarity - Take the complex and make it simple.  Make it clear.  This is easier said than done.  It takes a lot of work, study, meditation, to distill things down to their essential core.  But when the clarity comes, it allows you to preach with power and beauty.  Jesus was the master at this. 

2) Content - Feeding comes from a sense of gaining new insight, understanding, revelation.  Yes, there must be emotion in a message, but it must be commensurate to the content.  Again this requires, study, meditation and being taught of the Holy Spirit.  As it was said of Jesus when he was but 12 yrs of age, "Where did he get such understanding and answers - Lk 2:27). 

3) Flow - choppy preaching doesn't work.  The message needs to flow like a worship set.  There must be a sense of carry, ebb & flow, highs and lows that lifts and drops the hearers.  This makes for dynamic, compelling preaching.

4) Passion - In one sense, this is where clarity, content and flow converge.  But most importantly, passion must have the "x" factor in it, which for me is the most crucial part of preaching; the "X" factor being the anointing, the sense of burden & mission the preacher brings to the pulpit each time.  Does he feel the conviction of the message from God?  Does he feel the burden, the articulation, and even the gesticulation?  All the words can be smooth, but if there is no enduement from above, then there will be no transformation. 

Clearly, God chose the verbal-auditory mode as the prime means of communicating truth.  (Course, this does not mean we are to exclude other means of conveyance - e.g. video, object lessons, etc).   It is the means by which a person becomes saved.  It's the means by which a Christian is built up and the congregation is fed.  It's the means by which a church is mobilized toward a vision. 

The apostles placed prime significance on preaching because Jesus did.  A church's health, growth and vitality depends on it.  The hope of a city depends on the light coming from its pulpits.  Pray for us church planters.  Pray for us in the ministry of preaching.   It's the third key in establishing new churches.

(Previously: Perseverance: The first "P" of church planting.  Personnel: The second "P" of church planting.)