Things that I like to keep in mind
Starting your own business can be intimidating and overwhelming. Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged by lack of experience, or by the immaturity of your business, product, or ideas. We often are unable to add all of the features we feel our applications should have, simply because we are resource limited and there aren’t enough hours in the day.
This seems particularly relevant considering Andy Ihnatko’s recent, scathing review of Mars Edit, developed by Red Sweater Software, a one-man operation run by Daniel Jalkut. Many of the points Ihnatko makes are reasonable, but he doesn’t seem to consider whether or not the missing features he wants to see are eliminated on purpose, or simply haven’t made it in to the product yet due to triage.
Here are a few things that I try to keep in mind in these situations:
The iPhone was not Apple’s first product
Naturally, Apple didn’t come out with the blockbuster iPhone first off. Long before the iPhone came around, Apple had already taken the world by storm with its iPod mp3 and video players and its stellar lineup of computers.
The iMac was not Apple’s first product
Of course, Apple didn’t start out with this, either. The current iMac is a 4th generation model (the original CRT-with candy plastic model championed by Jobs upon his return to Apple, the sunflower model, and the white flat panel model all came first).
The iMac has been refined repeatedly by embracing new technologies and correcting design choices in previous generations. And, of course, long before the iMac there was the Macintosh itself.
The Macintosh was not Apple’s first product
Apple had been in business for several years before introducing the Macintosh. Before the Mac, Apple had developed the Lisa and multiple variants of its Apple ][ computer.
The Apple ][ wasn't their first product either...
The Apple ][ is what really got the ball rolling for Apple. As appallingly primitive as it might seem by today's standards, it was a giant in its day and its sales exploded with the advent of killer applications such as VisiCalc.
However, despite its success and its (by contemporary standards) primitive technology, the first personal computer to take the world by storm wasn't the first product that Apple produced.
Apple's first product was this
The Apple I was designed by Steve Wozniak for personal use. Wozniak's friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer. The Apple I was Apple's first product, demonstrated in April 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California. Unlike other hobbyist computers of its day, which were sold as kits, the Apple I was a fully assembled circuit board containing about 30 chips. However, to make a working computer, users still had to add a case, power supply, keyboard, and display. An optional board providing a cassette interface for storage was later released at a cost of $75.[1]
The almost poignantly primitive Apple I is the image that that I keep in my head whenever I look critically at our business or the state of our products. When I look at products such as Mentat, whose shortcomings seem overwhelming to me at the present, I try to see them as present-day versions of the Apple I, young products. I trace through the history of Apple and the Apple I’s illustrious descendants and keep in mind that I’m just looking at a product at the start of its trajectory.
What an inspirational realization: Apple didn’t turn into a giant overnight, their original roots were actually incredibly humble. This is a big help to me when I feel like our products are lacking polish or that we don’t have all of the features that I know we should have. I know that they will come with time, but when you are getting started, things will be rough until you can get enough time to refine them. As you pick up momentum, you’ll have the resources you need to turn out higher quality products.
Another thought that comes up around this comes to mind whenever I see Jobs doing a keynote: “This man in the spotlight got his start trying to pitch the Apple I. He’s been working hard at this for over 30 years.”
Steve Jobs was repeatedly turned down while trying to raise money to start Apple
Steve FUCKING JOBS tried to get a loan to start Apple and was turned down. The idea now is almost unthinkable: in this day and age if Steve Jobs said “I’ve found a new technology and I think that it’s got great potential” pretty much everyone is going to expect that whatever he wants to talk about is going to be the Next Big Thing, or at least worth listening to.
The take away here is that even a guy as demonstrably visionary and brilliant and Jobs couldn’t just sashay into a bank and say “hey, baby. I’ve got a great idea, why don’t you give me some money and I’ll go make us all rich.” If potential investors give you the cold shoulder, remember that they weren’t smart enough to recognize greatness in Steve, either.
Apple had been selling products to customers for several months by the time they found their first investor
Since no one would finance their company, Jobs ended up selling his van to raise some capital and the first Apple computers where built in the family garage. Once had the operation up and running and were selling hardware people started taking notice and they started getting investors, starting first with Mike Markkula[2].
The point
The point here is that companies like Apple didn’t crop up over night. Apple was founded on indie roots but progressively grew to the point that it had the resources to hire great people and produce great things that changed the world the day that they were released.
But they sure as hell didn’t start that way. The Apple I, created by Woz and championed by Jobs, represents to me the ultimate example of Mike Lee’s sincerity theory: “Do what you want and success will follow.” If you are working at what you want to do in earnest, you will succeed.
This blog post was made with mars edit