As CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs meticulously prepared his keynote presentations – sometimes months in advance. AP (Associated Press)
Steve Jobs’ seemingly untrained and relaxed presentation style is still legendary in business and technology today.
“He made it look like he had just thought it up,” says Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
But this ease was the result of meticulous preparation, and Gates says he has not yet achieved it.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
When Steve Jobs spoke on stage, it was magical. Few people are as convincing in public speeches as the Apple co-founder once was. No one before or after him captivated audiences so much, with visions of silicon and codes that change the world.
At least that’s what Bill Gates says. The Microsoft co-founder admits that he has been Jobs’ main rival for a long time envious to have been. More than a decade after Jobs’ death, Gates says he still hasn’t matched Jobs’ ability to appear so natural and unaffected on stage.
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Jobs was a brilliant speaker – he prepared his speeches for months
“Steve Jobs was a natural,” Gates said in an interview with American actor Dax Shepard as a guest on the podcast Armchair Expert. “It was always fun to watch him rehearse because part of his genius was that when he finally did it, he made it look like he was making it up,” he reflected. “I’ll never reach that level.”
As Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli write in their 2015 book “Becoming Steve Jobs,” the charismatic was preparing CEO meticulously prepares for his keynote presentations – sometimes months in advance.
“I once spent an entire day watching him rehearse a single presentation multiple times, changing everything from the color and angle of certain spotlights to editing and rearranging the order of keynote presentation slides to suit his pace to improve,” Schlender wrote.
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“At one point that day,” Schlender continued, “he just sat quietly on the stage, chin in his hand, and stared at the floor for almost 15 minutes, frustrated by the wrong lighting. This time he didn’t scream, but made everyone wait until he calmed down.”
In the podcast, Gates said that the job he and Jobs faced on the world stage, representing Microsoft and Apple respectively, was to convince people and companies that things like email and spreadsheets had an impact on their lives and work have.
Jobs still inspires Gates today
“We even called it proselytizing,” he said. “Some may not like that we stole a term from religion, but telling the story of the magic of software is something that – at least at the time when I was in my 30s – was a big part of the job was.”
Even today, Gates still uses Jobs’ communication style. When he touts support for global health, public education and the future of AI, he thinks of Jobs.
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“A big part of the job I did at Microsoft, and the job I do now, is explaining what we’re doing. “In a hopefully straightforward way that appeals to a specific audience,” Gates said. “I like trying to explain things, and I like getting feedback on which stories resonated and which didn’t.”
In one Interview Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 2019, Gates said of Jobs: “I wish I could be that magical. Because I have important concerns and I need to make sure they are not ignored.”
Read the original article Business Insider.