CHAPTER 13 On Creative Spirit
Under the guidance of a conductor, we can end up with wonderful mu-
sic. Without one there may just be sound and fury, signifying nothing.The PoDfaTheR
You may or may not have heard of Tony Fadell, but you’ll certainly have
heard of the iconic product he championed and helped to shape: the iPod. A
virtuoso conductor, and a true gentleman too, he was the ideal candidate to
manage Apple’s iPod development team.
In his biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson underlines the impor-
tance the iPod had for Jobs in late 2000. Frustrated with existing portable
music players (he thought they all “truly sucked”), Jobs was keen for Apple
to create the portable music player others just couldn’t. Working with Jon
Rubinstein, Jobs set about finding the right person to lead the develop-
ment team.
Fadell, just 21 years old at the time, had the perfect track record. Having
started three companies while still at the University of Michigan, he had
spent time working at the handheld device maker General Magic before
spending some time at Philips. Fadell had a number of ideas for creating
a better digital music player, but had been unsuccessful pitching these to
RealNetworks, Sony and Philips.
One day, while skiing, he got the call. As Isaacson puts it:Rubinstein told him that Apple was looking for someone who could work on a
‘small electronic device’. Fadell, not lacking in confidence, boasted that he was a
wizard at making such devices.A wizard and a conductor... the rest is history.
Fadell’s story centers around getting the right brains in place — bring-
ing together the right people. It serves to demonstrate that priming the
brain is only the first part of the equation.