You Are Not Steve Jobs

You are not Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was Steve Jobs. You can read the books, you can find lessons to take away from what Jobs did at Apple, but you can’t be Steve Jobs. Nor would he want you to be. You never read a story that suggested that Jobs wanted to be Thomas Edison. His success came from being Steve Jobs.

You are not Richard Branson. We already have a Richard Branson. There are some lessons you can learn from Branson, but his form of irreverence and resistance to what are considered normal business practices is Branson’s thing. He isn’t who he is because he wants you to be another version of Branson. You’ve never read a story that Branson wanted to be Rockefeller. Branson is successful because he is being Branson.

You are not the next Zuckerberg, the next Gates, the next Buffet, the next Musk, or the next Rockefeller. These people aren’t trying to be someone else. All of them were and are originals. That is what makes them special.

There are lessons you can learn from reading about other people who have succeeded in entrepreneurial endeavors. There are principles that you can observe, and some that you can actually practice.

But you can’t be the next anyone. Your circumstances are different. Your business is different. The people you work with are different. Your opportunities are different, and so are your challenges. You have different strengths, and you have different weaknesses. You are different.

Your job is to be the very best version of you possible, not a pale copy that is someone trying to be someone they’re not. You want to be the first and only you.

Note: And for God’s sake stop telling people you are a serial entrepreneur. If you start a business, have some success, grind out the work, and make some money. Stop starting half-baked ideas and quit with the half-hearted efforts. Find something you’re passionate enough about to see it through.