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Tim Cook reveals advice Steve Jobs gave him before handing over the reins as Apple CEO: 'Never ask what I would do'
Tim Cook recalled how Steve Jobs encouraged him to forge his own path rather than try to emulate his leadership style.
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Tim Cook recently revealed the one piece of advice Apple cofounder Steve Jobs gave him before handing over the reins as CEO of the tech giant: “Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing.”
Cook shared the advice in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning earlier this year, recalling how Jobs encouraged him to forge his own path rather than try to emulate his leadership style. “[Jobs’] advice to me was ‘Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing,’” Cook said in the interview.
The advice continues to influence Apple’s leadership nearly 15 years after Jobs died in October 2011. Cook, who joined Apple in 1998 and succeeded Jobs as CEO in 2011, said the cofounder wanted to ensure the company did not become paralysed by attempts to replicate his leadership style.
According to a report by Fortune, the advice stemmed from Steve Jobs’ observation of Disney. Notably, Jobs helped establish Pixar Animation Studios after purchasing the group from Lucasfilm in 1986. Disney later acquired Pixar in 2006, and during his work at the company, he noticed the company becoming paralysed by discussions about what its late founder Walt Disney would have done.
“He had watched Disney go through this paralysis of sitting around and talking about what Walt [Disney] would do. And he did not want that for Apple,” Tim Cook explained.
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How Steve Jobs prepared Tim Cook for the CEO role
Tim Cook recalled that Apple had never experienced a “professional transition” at the CEO level, with earlier successions taking place during periods of crisis. Jobs wanted his departure from the top job to be different. So he invited Cook to his home and offered him the CEO position, while making it clear that his successor did not need to follow in his footsteps.
“I’ll never forget that and it was such a gift for me, because he took off of my shoulder this question of, ‘What would Steve do?’” Cook said. “I just put my head down and thought, ‘I’m going to be the best version of myself.’”
Cook joined Apple less than a year after Jobs returned to the company as interim CEO. He became chief operating officer (COO) in 2005 before taking over as CEO in 2011, following Jobs’ resignation due to his declining health.
Over nearly three decades at Apple, Cook said he learned which principles were central to the company’s identity. Those included collaboration, intense debate, focus and a commitment to excellence.
In the CBS interview, Cook described Jobs’ belief that collaboration could produce results greater than the sum of individual contributions.
“[Jobs] had the vision that the collaboration was something that would produce great results. That one plus one is equal to three, not two. That if you share an idea and debate it, it gets bigger and better,” Cook said. “If you care enough that you call somebody at 10 at night because you just had an idea, that incredible things can come out of that,” he added.
Cook also highlighted Jobs’ emphasis on prioritisation, saying the cofounder believed that meaningful progress required turning down countless ideas to focus on what mattered most.
“[Jobs] had an idea of focus that you say ‘no’ to a thousand things to say ‘yes’ to the one that’s truly important. And that when you do something, you should do it at an excellence level where good isn’t good enough: it has to be insanely great,” Cook said.
(Also Read: Apple-1 computer with Steve Wozniak's signature and rare letter from Steve Jobs sells for ₹10.9 crore at auction)
Steve Jobs’ advice to other business leaders
Tim Cook was not the only business leader to receive career-defining advice from Jobs. The Apple cofounder also influenced executives including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Benioff recalled on Lenny’s Podcast in 2024 that Jobs helped him overcome “entrepreneurs block”. Jobs challenged him to grow Salesforce’s business tenfold within two years, secure a major customer for its automation product and build an application economy.
Benioff interpreted the advice as a call to build an app store and went on to create AppExchange, Salesforce’s marketplace for business applications. He later gifted Apple the App Store trademark and the appstore.com domain, crediting Jobs’ guidance for its influence on his career.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also turned to Jobs for advice during a difficult period for the coffee chain in 2008. After Schultz discussed the company’s problems with him, Jobs recommended replacing the entire leadership team, arguing that the executives would eventually leave anyway. Schultz initially found the suggestion difficult to accept but later said Jobs had been right, as all but one member of the team eventually departed.
