5 Powerful Psychological Tricks Behind Steve Jobs' Success
#Part 1 of 2
Steve Jobs had no technical knowledge.
Yet he started Apple- the biggest tech company in the world.
This would’ve been impossible without his mastery of persuasion and psychology.
In this article, I’ll break down various psychological principles he used.
Genius Sale Tactic
One of his most genius sales tactics was when he was selling the blue box.
It was an invention made by him and Steve Wozniak before Apple was even a thing.
He went up to the dorm rooms and asked “Is George here? He wanted to the blue box”
But George was a made-up person, so most people (as expected) would say no.
This did two things. First, it created a curiosity gap. They now wanted to know what the blue box was.
So they would ask Steve about it, and Steve would begin his pitch.
Secondly, it used social proof. It made it look like people wanted to buy the blue box.
Which is more important than you think. We tend to do things most people are doing.
In fact, restaurant sales of a particular item increase exponentially when it’s titled ‘most popular‘ or ‘best-selling’.
When we go to a new restaurant, we assume what most people buy must be good, and so we choose the best-selling item.
Steve used social proof from just age 16, something which can take sales people years to figure out! (more about it here)
Reframing
This is probably my favourite trick.
Jobs wouldn’t have been able to start Apple without his friend— Steve Wozniak.
The only problem was that Wozniak was opposed to starting a company.
It took a lot of trying to change Wozniak’s mind.
But Steve Jobs finally did with one line.
“We could lose all our money, but we’d still have a company”
This reframe was the key to opening Wozniak’s mind. It got him to Start Apple.
But there’s a reframe I like more of Steve Jobs. It was while creating the iPod.
Steve Jobs plops the iPod into a fish tank
First, Jobs forced his team to innovate something that would let the user reach any song in just three clicks.
It sounded impossible at the time, considering just typing the song name can need a dozen clicks.
But they did it with the scroll wheel.
It still wasn’t enough.
Jobs was holding the prototype in his fingers, he analyzed it for a few seconds, and then he said “It was too big”
His team went nuts; they just did the impossible. Now they had to make it smaller?!?
But Steve Jobs silently went on to plop the iPod into the fish tank.
The team watched as it sunk and bubbles came out of it.
Steve Jobs then pointed to the bubbles indicating there was still air space.
He asked them if they could remove the airspace to which they agreed.
Removing air space seemed so much simpler than just making the iPod smaller.
This reframe changed everything. And they made the better, more compact iPod.
Loading Screen Too slow!
I’ll go on and give you yet another example of how Steve Jobs used reframing.
It was while he was overseeing the creation of the OS of the Mac.
His engineer had done everything to make the bootup sequence as fast as possible.
But Steve Jobs wasn’t happy. He wasn’t an engineer but he still for some reason believed it could be faster.
No football player wants to be told what to do by a pot-belly person who doesn’t play sports.
This situation was similar but Steve jobs managed to convince the engineer.
He framed the question by asking the engineer if he had to save someone’s life would he be able to shave ten seconds off?
The engineer said he’d probably find a way in that case.
Steve then went to the whiteboard. He did some calculations and showed that 10 seconds for 5 million users over a year is equal to 100 lifetimes a year.
If he shaved that time off, he would be saving 100 lifetimes worth of time a year.
This perspective got the engineer to remove 28 seconds of time!!!
Steve Jobs at Atari
Steve Jobs used a lot of tactics to get into Atari.
He was a nobody. A college dropout. When he wanted to join the company.
The problem was that— Atari wasn’t taking people.
But that didn’t bother Jobs, he refused to leave until he got he got his interview.
Eventually, they interviewed him, and he landed the job with his knowledge.
Here he showcased his weakness(stubbornness) with his strength(knowledge).
This is subtle but it surely helped him.
It has been shown that showcasing minor weaknesses along with your strengths is more likely to get you accepted in a job interview than just showcasing strengths( read more here)
He also used sunk costs. It’s the feeling where we value things more if they cost more money, time, or effort to achieve.
The reverse of it also works, if someone puts in a lot of effort to get something, we perceive that person as more valuable.
His persistence to get the job also made him seem more valuable.
This is similar to the labor effect, and Steve knew it well.
Studies show people enjoy the food more if they see it being cooked. People rate beer better when they see a brewery.
So in every keynote presentation while launching a new Apple product he would start by saying things like-
“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years”
“about 10 years ago we had our greatest insight”
“ people have been working very hard… you can see a lot of cars in the parking lots in the night and the weekends.. and because of their hard work I’m pleased to …”
Just mentioning the effort put into a product, magnifies its value. A magnification steve Jobs never forgot to use.
Free Flight ticket
He even used some tactics when he was about to leave Atari.
Even though he was a junior employee who was on the verge of leaving he went on to ask for a free flight ticket to India.
You might think this request was nuts, but that was the point.
His bosses laughed his request off.
After which asked for a comparatively reasonable request- a free flight ticket to Munich, where he was willing to do some work as well.
Now they accepted this request.
He first asked something unreasonable and then asked something that sounded reasonable comparatively. This is anchoring, Steve Jobs knew what he was doing.
He made the iPod seem small while comparing it to larger products.
He made the expensive iPod seem cheap by saying doesn’t cost $999, but $499 only!
Advertisers use it all the time. They scratch off a higher price on the price tag and show an offer price, making the product seem really cheap.
Steve Jobs knew it would work
Apple got Ridley Scot and Fair Bank Films to create an advertisement for the 1984 Super Bowl.
The ad had nothing to do with Apple.
It was a scene depicting the novel 1984 and then at the end, it displayed the text “On January 24th Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984”
The ad said nothing about the product or the pricing.
All of the executive board members hated it. John Sculley, the CEO, even wanted to fire that ad agency.
But Jobs thought it was a work of art.
He knew the power of the curiosity gap and was willing to bet all his bucks on it.
Sculley didn’t want the ad to be shown.
But Jobs jumped in and told the ad agency to lie to Sculley. To make Sculley believe the ad can’t be removed now, and that it’s too late; the slots are already paid for.
Steve was right.
The ad ended up winning the best advert of all time award and even brought in 3.5 million dollars worth of sales immediately after its release.
Summary
Sunken costs & labor effect- things that are harder to get or things that take more effort are perceived as better/ more valuable
Coffee effect- have strengths to back up your weaknesses and you’ll be fine.
Anchoring: first asked for a trip to India, they rejected so he asked for a trip to Munich instead.
Curiosity gap
Reframing. Perhaps the most powerful. ”he put the ipod in a fishtank, bubbles came, he said there is air space, remove it. Make the ipod smaller”
Huge credit to Nudge. All the information here is basically stolen from his videos. Check them out here
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Thanks for reading :)