Again, there’s human nature at work here, and this can work in the short run. The problem, of course, is that in every competition most competitors lose. Some people use that losing to try harder next time, but others merely give up. Worse, it’s hard to create the cooperative environment that fosters creativity when everyone in the room knows that someone else is out to defeat them.
In a non-factory mindset, one where many people have the opportunity to use the platform (I count the web and most of the arts in this category), there are always achievers eager to take the opportunity. No, most people can’t manage themselves well enough to excel in the way you need them to, certainly not immediately. But those that can (or those that can learn to) are able to produce amazing results, far better than we ever could have bullied them into. They turn into linchpins, solving problems you didn’t even realize you had. A new generation of leaders is created…
It isn’t exactly difficult to find stories detailing how tough it can be to work with Apple and Steve Jobs — the web is rife with accounts from former Apple employees, developers, and partners providing a small glimpse of how things tick inside 1 Infinite Loop. But for some reason, these stories never get old. Tonight, there’s a new tale to add to the annals of Apple history that comes from CD Baby founder Derek Sivers, which he’s called