We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win Microsoft has to lose
I stumbled upon this in a movie titled "Pirates of Sillicon Valley".
This saying by Steve Jobs at 1997 MacWorld Expo has been my favorite quote ever since. I did a quick google search. Here you can see his speech and read a little bit of historical context. I would not elaborate as you can already read there.In this post, I will focus on winning the righteous way: acknowledging failure and increasing the size of cake.Yes, it is our human nature to win over others sometimes fairly and most of the time unfairly. Most of the time, we tend to focus on encroaching into established territories; hence, ending up with fierce fights and wars.
In my mother tongue, there is a saying: fishing where there are bubbles (hence, there are fish). This is the very reason that those who sold shovels to gold diggers made most of money. This is how whole US housing market and financial market collapsed. People would rush to "invest" through complex leveraging & hedging methods just to make money, just to win money.
But there is no meaning in this winning. Simply because there is no value creation. Eventually, the bubble would burst. This cycle happens again and again.
What Steve Jobs did was very noble.
He first admitted that he has lost in PC war. The very trend he started with his Macintosh well before Windows.
Secondly, he joined force with his "enemy" to share the cake; a strategy to keep Apple alive. And he never had second thought about fighting for a bigger share of that cake.
He led the innovation in mobile computing and mobile entertainment; creating values that we thought we would need but we didn't know how. This way, he increased the size of cake and took the fair share of this new and bigger cake.
So on May 26th 2010, Apple has overtaken Microsoft's market capitalization.
--- quoting SeekingAlpha's article
- Since September 16, 1997, when Jobs returned as CEO and Apple shares traded at $5.49 per share, the stock has surged 4,346%and now trades at $244.11 per share. Over the last five years, Apple's stock has grown about 600% while Microsoft's managed a modest 5% growth.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the share price times the number of outstanding shares. It is often used as a public metric of a company's overall net worth.
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We don't need to fight to win a war. We just need to do what we are good at; creating values. And we will be rewarded. Everyone wins from bigger cakes.
We don't need to fight for oil. We just need to look into alternative sustainable source of energy.
Disclaimer: I am not an Apple fan boy. I have yet to own any product by Apple. However, Steve Jobs is someone I look up to and I learn from.