Steve Jobs' response to my question . . .

Hey,

I talked about meeting Steve Jobs at Apple when I worked there back in 2008. I saw Steve Jobs daily when I went to Cafe Macs to eat lunch.

He was almost always outside in the sun, talking with Jony Ives on the park bench. They were always talking and looked happy to be together working.

One day I was able to ask Steve a question.

I wanted to know what he would do differently if he had infinite money, and his response surprised me, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

Most of the questions that Steve answered that day he brushed off quickly, but this one was one that he spent about ten minutes talking about because it resonated with him deeply.

I asked:

What would you do with infinite money?

Steve replied, "I have infinite money; we're sitting on $56 billion in cash."

He wasn't worried about the money . . .

. . . It was something else more important than money.

He said, "The hardest thing is people . . ."

". . . Finding the right people is hard."

All the money in the world doesn't help you make great products or services.

It comes down to people. The people who work for you set the tone of your business. They decide what to work on and how to work on it.

They decide when it's good enough or if it needs more work.

At Apple, Steve surrounded himself with people smarter than him in specific tasks. He assembled a group of people who were excellent at what they did and wanted to work with other talented and smart individuals.

When you have a culture of excellence, you can make great products.

So how do you get there?

It starts with what brought you to my email newsletter. You want to get better at something. It might be SwiftUI, Xcode, App Development, or App Store publishing.

You need to surround yourself with like-minded people who are curious and want to better themselves. People who don't accept the status quo.

There are a lot of apps you could build, but there are probably only a handful of apps you should build.

Have an app idea?

Hit reply and get my honest feedback. Should you even make it?

Why make it? Why now?

If you want to learn how to think about apps, you need someone who's been in the trenches—Someone who has experience working for big tech companies and small startups—Someone who's shipped apps and knows how hard it can be to publish something new.

Your friends and family won't help you. They'll say anything you do is good, but will they give you good feedback?

. . . Honest feedback?

For that, you must surround yourself with people who think differently, push boundaries, and want you to build the best possible app.

Steve was demanding at Apple. He pushed excellence in everything and could see how ideas could grow from good to great. Sometimes, he was wrong about an idea and would admit it later. He didn't dwell on bad decisions and reversed course when needed.

His quick action and relentless push for excellence made Apple the behemoth it is today.

Have an app idea? Hit reply and get my honest feedback—no fluff. I’ll tell you if you’re on the right track and if there’s a simpler way to build a first version.

Sometimes, the best move is to pivot your idea or shelve it for later.

Talk soon,
Paul Solt
[email protected]

P.S. How can I help you with app development and Codex?