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Why Apple is like a Picasso

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Apple, by Pablo Picasso, 1914.

Is it better to be creative or to steal? It’s a good question.

Which leads me to Apple and Microsoft founders Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. They both founded ultra-successful companies using Xerox’s ideas.

“Later, when he was challenged about pilfering Xerox’s ideas, Jobs quoted Picasso: ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ He added, ‘And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” That’s from The Innovators, by Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs. Hence the Macintosh personal computer with its Windows-like interface.

At the same time, Bill Gates was helping Jobs create the software. But when Gate’s contract to Jobs expired, Gates was free. That’s when Gates created WINDOWS and sold it as a software package to any company wanting to license it. Jobs, in order to keep control, did not. The rest is history.

When Jobs learned that Gates was developing his own software that, through licensing, would leave Apple in the dust, Jobs called Gates down to Cupertino. Jobs was furious. He accused Gates of stealing. “You’re ripping us off! I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us!” Jobs screamed.

Gates had a habit of getting calmer when others were losing their cool.

And when Jobs was finished with his tirade Gates looked him calmly in the eyes and said: “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”

Who are the next generation of innovators? And where will they get their ideas? Stay tuned.

Walter Isaacson: “The Innovators” | Talks at Google

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E.J. Smith

Editor-in-Chief
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com.

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