The Magic of Selling

Several weeks ago Bloomberg BusinessWeek published an article about Steve Jobs entitled, The Last Pitchman. It documented Jobs’ seemingly inexplicable ability to sell practically anything, as evidenced by his glorious pitch for the iPhone 4, a “new” product which the news media had already gotten hold of and detailed weeks before. I tore the pages out of the magazine as is my habit with content which proffer good fodder for blogposts. Although the article was fascinating, I struggled with how to make sense of it — until last Sunday when I read a New York Times interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box.net. Levie used to do magic shows as a teen, and he says some of his most important leadership lessons come from the hobby: “…it’s all about getting in front of people and telling a story, something that people buy into that is hopefully entertaining. It’s all about capturing people’s imaginations and getting them excited about what’s possible.” I realized that’s exactly what makes Jobs such an effective pitchman – magic. Let me break this down a little.