• WOWOW: True Fans Want True Charisma

    edited by Alexander Becker

    True fans, true charisma, and true assholes, what's the difference anyway -- and the trouble with Steve Jobs.

    Kevin Kelly does it again, and it is amazingly, beautifully simple: You need 1000 true fans --

    A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author -- in other words, anyone producing works of art -- needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

    A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

    Ok? Here is the secret, from the angle of Bob Sutton's (no) asshole perspective --

    All accounts about Jobs make clear that he is not all asshole all the time -- that he uses nastiness strategically at times or sometimes simply loses his temper. As I show in the chapter on the virtues of assholes, if you want to be an effective asshole, you can't be all asshole all the time.

    ... it is interesting how often his anger seems to focus on two issues: aesthetics and ease of human use. Examples include his temper tantrum about the color that the vans were painted at NEXT, a story an engineer told me about how unhappy Jobs was with the color of the bolts inside a computer (he wanted the technicians and geeks who opened it up to be impressed with the beauty), and a story -- which is pure rumor -- that he fired someone from the Apple store because he didn't like the color and quality of the bags that she ordered.

    (...)

    I worry that, by glorifying Jobs, we are making the world safe for asshole infested organizations and fueling the belief that assholes make more effective leaders.

    The Fortune article: The trouble with Steve Jobs: Asshole, genius, or both?

    Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk.

    Finally, Steve Jobs speaks out himself --

    We had a big debate inside the company whether we could do that or not. And that was one where I had to adjudicate it and just say, We're going to do it. Let's try.

    This is exactly the point.

    What are you called when you're an asshole but no CEO? You're charismatic. When you're the CEO, it's all about charisma and unpopular decisions. As a leader, you're admired for making decisions, admired even for making unpopular decisions, admired as a martyr -- and ultimately, secretly, you're admired as an asshole -- because after all, it's your job, you have to do it.

    Just make sure that you act because you have to act like you have to act, that is, as long as you're being an asshole out of passion, charisma, or even chutzpah, your true fans will remain true fans and become even more fanatic. When it is fear that makes you act like an asshole, well, this is what you get: No fans, no charisma, no chutzpah, no passion, and certainly no reward.

    The more unique the vision, the more elaborate the idea, the farther ahead of the pack, the more charisma you need to just do it and to convince everybody else that you are right and that it works anyway. Again, the more charismatic, the more you polarize your peers.

    The trick is to appear as a total asshole not all the time and not no everybody at once but to try to appear civilized half the time or to half the people. This way, your reputation remains stable.

    One more thing: If you had a dream, would you want anyone -- except yourself -- to interfere, influence, or even taint the outcome of what you know would be the most beautiful thing in your life? Wouldn't you fight with everything you've got?

    I thought so.

    Chances are, that the asshole trait (or is it a gene?) makes any dream a little -- if not much -- more realistic.

    Have a great weekend and at least try not to abuse your peers too much. On the other hand, what are you waiting for? Make your dream come true already!

    Your true fans will take care of themselves.

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