Steve Jobs @ MIT 1992 - "What's the most important thing that you personally learned at Apple...?" 

Great to see how he took time to answer. We often feel pressured and forced to give a response instantly. It’s totally okay to pause reflect and take as long as you need to give an answer taking full control of the situation. It certainly tests your confidence and the patience of the person asking the question. Great to see how Steve’s composure

That’s his brilliance - who really thought hard about the question before giving any answer - love you Steve

"Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people." - Steve Jobs

Creating a problem-solving system >> Instantly solving the problem

Not a scripted answer , that's why he took time and given a nice answer. Great

Look at the time he took to answer , thats so amazing

I love how Steve took his time to come up with an answer, like he took that on a personal level and wanted to provide the questioner with a true, authentic answer. That's a quality I've rarely found in people.

More people need to watch this video. He took his time to answer the question which is something most of us need to learn how to do.

He is so confident. I can't handle that kind of silence in the public.

The key to running a huge company successfully is to pause when being asked a random question in another setting. Fantastically superb and absolutely amazing!

these are the kind of genuine questions that aren't asked at interviews anymore. edit: didn't think too much while commenting; just said what I felt at the moment.

This is the hardest thing to overcome as a technical manager for me anyway. Understanding that you yourself can only accomplish so much on your own no matter how good you are at your job. In any industry someone who becomes knowledgeable and experienced enough is eventually going to be charged with teaching and mentoring others. If your not good at that, the best you'll ever be or the most you'll ever accomplish will be limited to your own capability. I see so few technical managers that understand this..

"Taking a longer term view on people" This hit close to home because I too feel the need to fix something or someone right away, but I soon realize that isn't always the case. It's the Gardener vs. Mechanic philosophy. Things take time & you need to gradually teach someone for the long term & it isn't always easy considering the world around them is changing too.

“Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.” - James Clear

The time he took to answer shows that he is true about his answers and not just responding that makes answer more attractive.

I believe this was around when everything in his career was going wrong. He had cut ties with Apple. NeXt and Pixar were failing. This was the period in which he became the version of Steve Jobs that we all know and love today. The genius operator who took chances on people instead of treating them like objects like he once did. The genius innovator who launched and scaled the iPod and the iPhone among other extraordinary inventions.

I liked the way that Steve Jobs took time to think properly before responding. That's the trait of highly confident people

steve always will say things I've just never come close to thinking

A good motivation to do this is to open up more free time for yourself. You cannot delegate if your team doesn't learn. As leaders get older they realise they have to be this way.

It’s cool to think about how he processed his answer during that pause. I imagine him realising the answer quite instantly - but it was the explanation that required more finessing.

I love how he really thought about the question. The art of listening is becoming more and more rare, and what a great answer.

I used to teach martial arts. I was always adamant that there was no one “right” way to do a technique. I would do my best as a teacher to lay a framework of the fundamental requirements that must be met in order for a technique to work, but leaving space within that framework for students to experiment and develop their own, individual relationship with the technique was important to me. In other words, in order to get an armbar from guard, the requirements are that your hips aren’t pinned, that your opponents elbow has been separated from their torso, and that you’ve secured at least enough control over your opponents posture that they can’t move their hips beneath their head. Those are a set of criteria that you can accomplish through an innumerable set of methods. There are an unfathomable number of subtly differentiated permutations of that technique which all satisfy those criteria, but each of which satisfy those criteria utilizing different mechanisms. But my goal, as a teacher, is not to get them to perfectly execute MY vision of an armbar, in an attempt to validate MY sense of superiority. My goal is to get them to make their opponent tap out. And if they find something that works, even if it differs from how I would approach that problem, I would be an idiot if I did not recognize the value of the insight that my students had afforded me through their own, individual interpretations of my teaching. And if, in utilizing my heuristic model, they arrive upon a completely different methodology that proves to be successful, I’m happy. But the uncovering and discovery of such a different methodology requires a certain level of tolerance for failure and for variance. Corporate America is so grossly detached and divorced from understanding what genuine, true excellence is. No one is excellent, no one excels beyond their peers without creativity and individuality. And creating an environment which fosters creativity and individuality requires that you be willing to allow people to fail. We punish people for failure when we should be excited about the information and perspective that the failure provides. We should not be angry, but rather, excited at the opportunity to develop something new.

Liked how our boy really took the time to weigh out his answer

Can’t believe he’s gone imagine what the world would be like if he’d still be here.

Legend 🔥💯

We look at “greater than life” figures through the aura of their achievements, status, popularity or even beauty, so every word, gesture or silence they make seems mystical. However some of them are geniuses like Steve.

I known from experience that the same thing applies in the inverse, employees who look great but something dramatic happen and you realize they aren't and if you would have been paying closer attention you could have realized sooner.

Amazing, Steve took time to reflect & answer. And his Answer was was very profound - what he said is Team building 101. Allowing people to learn.

I can see his passion in his voice

That pause before he speaks! A lost art!

He wasn't just "at" apple, he created it.

average people take time to think and answer. Everyone: this person is stupid. Steve Jobs took time to think and answer. Everyone: omg, this is genius, so brilliance.

Thinking before replying shows that you respect the question of the asker enough to give a well-considered response

I checked the RU-vid timer whether the video is stuck or what...But, he took his time that deep to answer. Lesson.

Salute to his habit of taking a pause he has before answering something. Would love to know how one can learn that skill of not hurrying to answer the question and answer in a relaxed calm way after giving a thought.

You will always see very intelligent people first think before they respond. They ponder on the question, and weigh the impact and relevance of the answer.

I just realised I’ve never seen what he looked like before illness and old age. I didn’t even recognise him until he answered.

Taking the time to think instead of rushing. Respect

It's crazy how everything he said was somehow poetic

It's been 30 years..So grateful for this video..

To get a guest like him at CLASSROOM is the best thing one can have

A whole 20 seconds before he finally answered. I'm impressed he took his time, not many do that. Shows confidence

If anyone of us takes such amount of time during a job interview we are kicked 😂😂

I like how he always thinks for a while before answering a question. I might start doing that.

Incredible advice for the workplace!

I work at Apple corporate, obviously things have changed since this video. Today is a Saturday as I type this comment. Yesterday I was approached by three management staff, out of the blue, and asked to be our Team Lead. I had zero idea this was happening and I promise you this wasn't the cliche corporate thing of, "cold faces, zero emotion... we're giving you more responsibilities on top of everything else." They told me straight to my face, "we want you to grow further" and I'll leave it at that. This morning I was like, "oh great, I'm already thinking to RU-vid Steve Jobs videos for any hint of how to now lead a team I was formerly just working for..." But this video weirdly kinda nailed it. There are FAR too many companies that HYPE focus on management / managers as the sole bread and butter of companies... As if workers are expendable and should be treated as, one terrible former boss I had said, "trash that's just waiting to be taken out!" The problem with companies that focus on management is that a top down strategy doesn't work. Everyone who's ever worked for a shitty boss knows this. I know it too... Steve Jobs wasn't an inventor, coder or programmer, so why is he remembered? Because he had a fully natural gift to assemble perfect teams of players to work together. Of course this is combined with his natural charisma too, but his true gift was finding the right people. So what's the takeaway from my comment if you're still reading? We're all struggling. I like to say, "look, everyone is fighting an invisible war you know nothing about, be nicer to people." -- But people should come first. The team YOU work with should come first. Sadly the VAST majority of management at a crazy amount of companies will never think this way, and that's why there is this stigma that, "workers are waste ready to be discarded" persists..

Imagine if all CEO's nowadays were like him...I miss him and his spirit of creation, even more the fact that it has never been overshadowed by the loads of money he made! Chapeau!

all people who say that they love how Steve took his time to answer. Next time please take your time and look if there are dozens of such comments.

What a fabulous man who is missed deeply. All intelligent people think before they speak when asked a question.

He took 20 seconds to give his response. Wise man.

Don't be afraid to ask questions your job can become so much easier when you can compare your work with others tweak it from there your perfect may not be someone else's perfect and remember surprises happen when you least expect it everyone is unique your clientele got the rehearsals your employees should be forever

Lesson #2: it’s OK to be silent and take time to think before you answer.

The point was never to create a perfect computer....

This actually comes through really powerfully in The Movie - it depicts him as someone that has real difficulty in Trusting other people to Do The Work when he asks them to, and is constantly pushing and micromanaging early on.

holy shit, steve had a whole mini acid trip and came out with some gems

The next longest pause taken was by Elon Musk in Lex Fridman podcast.

"He changed the world! The world was one way! And then Steve Jobs came, and it was another!" What did he do? Somebody, for the love of god. What the freak did that guy do? What he do? He told other people what to invent. "I want my entire music collection in that phone. Get on it! ... New phone can't fit the old charger. This is your hero? This is the guy? This is what all the silence is all about. New phone can't fit the old charger, so you gots to throw it out. It ends up in the ocean around some octopus's neck." Love ya Bill Burr.

Wow, this is actually an insanely valuable point of view. If you fire a person who screws up something instantly, and look for a better team member, it means you will be under-staffed for a period, it will cost to hire a new employee, and after going through all that phase, that person might turn out to be a screwup on another task. Asking "who is this person exactly and why s/he fails to do this?", and trying to eliminate the issue would be quite helpful, and these types of situations in work life enhance the bonding among team members. It is meaningful for other team members to somebody try to overcome his personal obstacles to be a better colleague, it is self-devotion in its purest form.

The freshman there are my age! Too bad I didn't go to MIT in 1992, I may have been able to see this live!

so many people praising his "well thought out" answer which was basically "People aren't as perfect as I am so I learned to correct their mistakes in a better way". wow

Steve takes longer time to answer a question everyone just wow look at him thinking so hard that's so cool. Meanwhile when i take time to answer question literally everyone including teacher if you don't know just go out. And there it is my all confidence goes to zero. It's not a work or activity that we appreciate it's people who we believe is superior than us but they are not.

Give them a vision to move forward with people.

Totale ammirazione per questo genio. Riposa in pace🙏

He took this from the heart, he knew his behavior was wrong at apple and he learned and grew to be a better person, very few people can grow like this, he did and he went on to do wonderful things after this.

Successful people when they pause to give a careful explanation : "amazing" Student when pause during presentation : "-50% mark reduction for pausing, you're a failure" F system

Exactly took 21 Seconds to Answer! Thats some great Confidence and sincere answering.

Was that really just a roundabout way of saying that instead of firing someone, he helps them and gives them a chance to grow?

Absolutely, it's important that every employee learns and grows every day, non-creative tasks can be automated. So one day every employee will be an entrepreneur!

I am studying for my next week chemistry exam.. But this seemed more important...

I can totally relate to what he is saying. I am mentoring folks and it is not a cake walk especially when you have team members who are not taking ownership of their tasks.

You can feel he is talking from bottom of his heart .

holy, that's a really good advice to take a longer term rather than fixing the issue at hand and considers it how you'd want to take a person

“How much cheaper it is to manufacture in China”

Steve gave the question some thought before he answered, that is great,most answer almost instantly

i love how he pauses to seem as if he's thinking very deeply about how to respond, i do the same thing when im holding in a potential shart

Superb answer. We have an impulse to fix the problem but when you’re building a strong company you need to worry about the source of the problem.

Didn't look like an old man back then but then you realize he was no older than 37 here.

ALTERNATIVE ANSWER: 0:37 " and that is... I now take a longer time to answer questions. In order words when I hear a question my first reaction is not to rush in answering it..."

He looks like such a nice guy in this video compared to what I’ve heard about him.

When we heard the answer we forgot about the pause. Great leader.

I still remember myself asking Steve why he took such a long time to answer, right after that speech. He paused a little bit, and it took him almost as much as the time he took on stage. "Dude I was just stoned as fuck, I am better now right? "

When I take a pause it’s embarrassing when Jobs takes a pause he’s a genius

Commenting for algorithm purposes

Great advice for business and family

Here is the cheat code. If i can literally just sit around basking in my own happiness and love and self-satisfaction then that short-circuits all of life. That's the genius of this method. That's its power. You think this is a bug. This is not a bug. This is a feature. This is exactly what you want. You want to short circuit that because you see then it frees you up.

he took time because he has learned so much, he don't know which is most important.

While everyone comments super intellectual stuff by dissecting his persona, lemme just scream in silence about his beauty, this is the first time I've seen young steve jobs

Take your Time, Recharge and come back Stronger.

I get that people are amazed by him taking like 10 seconds to answer, but honestly, I think instead of pointing it out, we should normalize it. It should be unexceptional to think about a question before responding to it. In fact, I find it alarming when someone has an answer in the chamber for a question that requires analysis. We should be pointing out situations where people DON’T take time to answer! Just as much as we acknowledge people for taking the time to be thoughtful, we should be critical of thoughtlessness.

What an odd lesson to think as most valuable from such a brilliant man. Any decent father instinctively knows this when raising a child. Very telling of the man.

This speech given when I was at 2 years old . I love how the timeline has passed with such great development in human history. I should mention only positive here. ❤

Elon Musk also takes a pause to think before he answers a question. We should all take a lesson from this rather than being unconfortable with silence and quick to fire off a half-baked respinse.

A 20 second pause to gather his toughts - wow

What is funny is, Steve Jobs took 21 seconds to think before answering the question. And recently, Elon Musk on Lex Friedman show did the same, he took 21 seconds. Did Elon really had Steve Jobs in his mind? haha but whatever the case might be, it is a nice reminder to have the habit of taking time to think before answering questions. May be this simple habit could have saved so many misunderstanding ( which resulted in conflict or war) or could have brought so many quality ideas to the outer world.

Thinking takes time… sometimes long time... That answer is so great that it is definitely worthy of the wait.

Look at the way he says nothing for so long, then says essentially nothing after. Amazingly inspiring.

You know you made a great question when you make Steve Jobs think the answer for 15 seconds

the legend almost no one remembers.

Part of being a good leader is allowing others to work. Considering the fact that a leader is just another role your team. If you feel like you need to do everything then obviously you shouldnt be the one telling people what to do, and would better serve as the worker. His response shows that even at the highest level we all deal with the same problems in the workplace

"taking a longer term view on people" More like: "Taking a longer time on people's questions"