What Do Steve Jobs and Miles Davis Have in Common

Specifically, they used their intuitions to change their personal and professional lives, affecting substantial segments of the world’s population along the way. 

I’ve always admired Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and considered one of the greatest innovators of the twentieth century.  I’ve also been a great fan of Miles Davis, the iconic jazz trumpet player who gave birth to new forms of this American music genre.

In a recent article about Steve Jobs’ perspective on intelligence, I saw similarities in how each had a profound and long-lasting impact on their respective worlds of technology and music.

They clearly had different personalities in how they interpreted what was “new” (each in his personal view) and how each went about being a formidable influencer. Notably, each was technically proficient at their craft and greatly admired by both followers and competitors. Much has been written about each of them. 

In a nutshell, Jobs was aggressive, completely convinced his ideas were relevant (“people don’t know what they need until you show them”), and stubborn to a fault. He demanded a high level of performance from his entire team and was decidedly opinionated. 

On the other hand, Davis was quite the opposite in his style of execution. He was soft-spoken (sometimes even hard to understand), mysterious in his intentions and demeanor, and deliberately threw curve balls at his fellow musicians to push their improvisational limits. 

You begin to see the commonalities with these simple words that each spoke:  

Steve Jobs: “Think Different” and “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Jobs coined fluid intelligence as, “You have to not have the same bag of experiences as everyone else, or you’ll just keep making the same connections.” He hired smart young tech people and then pushed them hard to produce more than they imagined they were capable of doing. 

In time, this resulted in a culture of over-the-top innovative thinking and execution throughout the Apple organization. 

Miles Davis: “Play what you feel” and “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.”

Davis, being of few words, let actions speak. He constantly looked for innovators with a high degree of talent in their respective musical abilities. Not just in technical proficiency but in their thinking and interpretation of music. When he found them, he hired them and gave them free rein to improvise within the context of parameters that he set. He surrounded himself with young players who came with new experiences, were good at their craft (sometimes prodigies), and had an inherent ability to interpret music differently.

The results were stellar listening experiences, with everybody at the top of their game. 

While there is no evidence that these two individuals ever met in person, both made immeasurable contributions to culture and technology. Ironically, it is well known that Jobs was heavily influenced by music, and Davis proactively embraced new technology in his pursuit of creativity. 

What can we learn from these icons? 

When innovation is a constant in any context, it drives progress and growth. When Ideas are embraced, nurtured, and thoughtfully groomed, worlds change to benefit the recipients. 

We are grateful to them for bringing technology and music together to make our lives easier and happier. 

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Learn, Think, and Execute to your success – in business and in life.

Tom

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