Mark Achler, Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist: "Steve would force people out of their comfort zones to deliver 10 or even transcend themselves to deliver an 11."
For me, what Steve embodied was the ability to get to the essence of a problem from a customer's perspective and drive to unique solutions. Steve was able to combine an exquisite design sensibility and aesthetic, with a fierce courage to follow his own convictions and vision, and the very rare ability to force his employees out of their comfort zone and delivery the quality of work they did not even know they had in them.
As a manager, on an aribitrary scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best; if one of my employees really busted their butt and tried their hardest and delivered a 9; I would pat them on the head and say a genuine thank you for their effort. In that same situation, many a time I saw someone work their heart out and deliver the best work they thought they were capable of, only to have Steve rip them to shreds and tell them their work was crap. He would force people out of their comfort zones to deliver 10 or even transcend themselves to deliver an 11.
I've never seen any manager in my entire career who could both inspire and terrorize their employees to produce consistent excellence and refuse to accept anything less.
