My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check;... — Steve Jobs

My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.

Author: Steve Jobs

Insight: There's something almost radical about this idea now—the notion that the best work comes not from a single visionary but from people who actively contradict each other. We've built this whole culture around individual genius, the lone founder or the charismatic leader. But Jobs understood something different: that genius actually needs friction. Think about how you make better decisions when someone you trust pushes back on your thinking. They catch the blind spots you can't see, the obvious thing you've overlooked because you're too close to it. The Beatles weren't great despite their disagreements—they were great because they had them. Paul would come in with a polished pop song, John would add something weird and raw, and somehow the tension between those instincts created something neither could have made alone. They needed each other's "negative tendencies" as much as their talents. The counterintuitive part is that this requires genuine respect and genuine disagreement happening together. It's not consensus where everyone waters down their ideas. It's more like a basketball team where every player is good enough that the coach can't just dictate everything. You have to build something that works because the pieces genuinely complement each other, not because everyone thinks alike. That's harder to manage than surrounding yourself with yes-people, which is probably why most organizations don't bother trying.

Source: Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, p. 567, 2011