What I learned from Steve Jobs.

What did I learn from observing Steve Jobs?
I learned keep your new product announcements secret. Make new products a mystery. Let the industry pundits compete to outguess the other. The press from this competition is worth millions in advertising dollars.

I was a software developer for Apple and we were under intense scrutiny by Apple executives to keep the early product releases that we received secret. We developed our products to coincide with the new product announcements from Apple.

Secrecy was critical to our success.

And being a young company, we needed to keep our advertising dollars to a minimum. The point is the mystery that surrounded our new products coupled with Apple's new product releases significantly decreased the need for launch advertisements. The press rumors and the speculations from the industry commentators provided all the initial customer interest we needed. Most companies pay for new product press. Apple and companies like ours got our launch press for free. The world loves a surprise. We did not need to advertise. The mystery surrounding the new product surprise announcement was all the marketing fuel we needed to launch the new product. Create a mystery for your next product launch amd get some free press.