Admitting your mistakes is rarely easy. Former Apple CEO John Sculley did it anyway during his speech to Brown University entrepreneurs at their 10th Annual Entrepreneurship Forum. Young ‘uns may not remember that John Sculley was CEO of Apple, Inc. from 1983 to 1993, having been lured away from PepsiCo by Steve Jobs. Sculley’s years at Apple brought us the Macintosh, and $1 billion-to-$10 billion rise in annual sales. Alas, Sculley’s reign was broadsided by Dell, whose “build ‘em cheap, sell ‘em cheap” business plan undercut Apple’s prices.
Sculley said he was ousted from Apple after he refused to license the Mac technology to other companies. He is now a venture capitalist. “Life doesn’t always work out the way you planned,” he said. “That’s why I say it’s OK to make mistakes. Just try to go back and understand it.”Although Sculley didn’t elaborate on whether he and Jobs talk nowadays, he did praise Jobs for Apple’s success since Jobs returned to the company in 1997.
