Quotables

Apple's goal isn't to make money. Our goal is to design and develop and bring to market good products," he explained. "We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence we'll make some money. But we're really clear about what our goals are.

Lessons in innovation.

There are a couple of key points that I took from this interview, based on my own experience on both sides of the fence (as a media player, reporting on tech success, and as an innovator trying to drive it from a manufacturing perspective).

The first is that "companies need to define their own clear, high-minded raison d’être, which should drive the actions and decisions of every employee, from the C-suite down."

The other, is that "unless the disciplines of innovation are acknowledged and embraced as core values by every employee, they won't gain traction."

"We don't have identity manuals reminding us of points of philosophy for why our company exists," Ive said of Apple's internal culture. "I'm sure those things are very well meaning, but if you have to institutionalize stuff, you end up chasing your tail."

In other words, unless the commitment to innovation or design is authentic and heartfelt, rather than this month's short-term strategy to cater to a hot trend, it will be nigh on impossible to build a true, innovation-led culture.

Yes, faced with odds as big as these, the average citizen of a troubled South Africa in late summer ’08 is sorely tempted to give up. Or, even worse, just leave.

But that is an average citizen I’m talking about. Not you. You’re a maverick. Giving up is not an option, here or anywhere, any time. You know who you are, and you know what you value in life. You understand that selling your principles is a sacrifice that will leave you scarred for the rest of your life, a price that is too much to pay for a human being of your integrity and brains. 

Think about this when entropy starts banging at the gates of your being. Your uniqueness is an affront to it; your clear thought unbearable to the force of chaos, your system of values an antidote to its corrosiveness. Deep within you remains your greatest treasure: your restless, ever-wandering soul. No matter how difficult the times, the true maverick’s soul will never be for sale. At any price. 

There once was a great magazine, one of the few I waited for each month with a sense of anticipation.
This is one of the editor's columns from Maverick, which rings as true today, as it did when Branko first penned it nearly 18 months ago.
"Deep within you remains your greatest treasure: your restless, ever-wandering soul. No matter how difficult the times, the true maverick’s soul will never be for sale. At any price."
I've been through arguably the toughest time of my life during the course of the last 6 months, and through it all, I came to understand that selling my principles was a sacrifice that would leave me scarred for the rest of my life, a price too much to pay.
When it was all too easy to give up, to surrender to creeping entropy, I chose to fight.
And I won't give up. Not in the defense of what is right.
If you're a maverick, every word of Branko's column will resonate afresh. Do yourself a favour. Read it.

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.

What ever the situation, when circumstances conspire to bring you to your knees, and to kick you when you are down ... dig deep, stand-up, dust yourself down ... and face your circumstances with dignity.

If you can.

If you have to, run ... there is such a thing as dignity in defeat, whatever the win-at-all-costs media would have you believe.

All the better to fight another day.