I mean, you guys, most of you come from companies where you've had work experience, right?

How many of you are from manufacturing companies?

No, seriously, I don't think there's anything inherently evil in consulting.

I think that without owning something over an extended period of time, like a few years, where 1 has a chance to take responsibility for one's recommendations, where 1 has to see one's recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes and pick oneself up off the ground and dust oneself off, 1 learns a fraction of what 1 can.

Coming in and making recommendations and not owning the results, not owning the implementation, I think is a fraction of the value and a fraction of the opportunity to learn and get better.

And so what you do get a broad cut at companies, but it's very thin.

It's like a picture of a, I'm a vegetarian, so I won't use steak, but it's like a picture of a banana.

You might get a very accurate picture, but it's only two-dimensional.

And without the experience of actually doing it, you never get three-dimensional.

So you might have a lot of pictures on your walls.

You can say, look, I've worked in bananas.


Speaker 0: I mean, you guys, most of you come from companies where you've had work experience, right? How many of you are from manufacturing companies?

Speaker 1: Oh, excellent. Where are

Speaker 0: the rest of you from?

Speaker 1: Oh, how many from consulting? Oh, that's bad.

Speaker 0: You should do something.

Speaker 1: No, seriously, I don't think there's anything inherently evil in consulting. I think that without owning something over an extended period of time, like a few years, where 1 has a chance to take responsibility for one's recommendations, where 1 has to see one's recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes and pick oneself up off the ground and dust oneself off, 1 learns a fraction of what 1 can. Coming in and making recommendations and not owning the results, not owning the implementation, I think is a fraction of the value and a fraction of the opportunity to learn and get better. And so what you do get a broad cut at companies, but it's very thin. It's like a picture of a, I'm a vegetarian, so I won't use steak, but it's like a picture of a banana.

You might get a very accurate picture, but it's only two-dimensional. And without the experience of actually doing it, you never get three-dimensional. So you might have a lot of pictures on your walls. You can show it off to your friends. You can say, look, I've worked in bananas.

I've worked in peaches. I've worked in grapes. But you never really taste it. And I think that that's what I think. Thank you.

See all Malonus transcripts on Youtube

Steve Jobs on Consulting