Am I Different From My Co-opetition?

By Cheval John

March 29th, 2017


I was watching movies documenting the life of Steve Jobs and how the company Apple was founded.

The fact that Mr. Jobs did not care too much about making money or what the shareholders thought when the company went public was very intriguing.

Some said that parts of the movie which was portrayed by Austin Kuecher was a bit off.

And the other movie starring Kate Winslet that showed the behind the scenes of the launches of the Macintosh Computer, Next and the iMac was a bit different from what actually occurred.

It was interesting to see that no one could truly understand the thought process of Steve Jobs and the attention to detail in each of Apple products.

I want to focus on Apple’s original Mac computer launch in 1984.

The company had one of the biggest ipo’s in wall street history in 1980 due to the success of the Apple II.

The board of directors convinced Mr. Jobs they needed a new CEO to run the daily operations of the company.

They hired John Scully as their CEO and released the most iconic commercial for the launch of Macintosh.

The Macintosh did not sell particularly well after they launched and the board wanted to put their resources in the Apple II.

Mr. Jobs believed the Macintosh was overpriced and disagreed with the board.

That disagreement led to the firing of Mr. Jobs as the board of directors sided with Mr. Scully.

As the story goes, Mr. Jobs founded NexT and their computer design was a failure.

The software for the computer was really successful.

Mr. Jobs bought Pixar and had one of the most successful movies of all time.

Apple bought NexT and Mr. Jobs was back as an interim CEO before being in that role on a permanent basis.

Mr. Jobs was wrong about the Macintosh in 1984 and the board of directors was correct.

However, Mr. Jobs was way ahead of the time because customers was not ready for the Macintosh computer.

In 1998, the customers was ready for the iMac computer and that product helped Apple to become a profitable company again.

Mr. Jobs did not want Apple to be the same company as other computer businesses because they understood that customer experiences mattered more than selling a computer product.

Watching those movies about the company Apple got me to think about if I am being different from my other business “competitors.”

We see a lot of people doing live streaming shows, podcasts, running social media companies.

I was wondering if I was doing the same thing and being a part of the crowd.

I am making my audience feel better about themselves the minute I post content on social media.

Am I a visionary?

Am I willing to hold my ground despite the objections from many who believe that you must have a 9-5 work in order to be successful and disrupt the status quo of doing business?

I do know customers want a company who cares about their well being and don’t want to be sold to.

Educational content pertaining to a company’s product or service through the medium of podcasts, live streaming shows, blog posts and YouTube videos are what will win business.

If a customer feels apart of the brand, they will do business with the brand.

That is what Mr. Jobs aspired for Apple to be: a customer centric company.

I can tell you that other people like Kristyna Torres, Michelle Van Otten and Winnie Sun are following in Apple’s footsteps in providing customer-centric service.

Are you different from your competition? You can leave your comment below

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About Cheval John

Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.

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