The late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs has inspired a legion of entrepreneurs hoping to define the next era of business. Despite never meeting the tech legend, Intercontinental Exchange founder Jeffrey Sprecher hails Jobs as a “mentor,” and credited the pioneer for teaching him a critical lesson in career success.
“Steve Jobs was Apple, right? But he didn’t really write code or invent anything, Sprecher said recently at the Rotary Club of Atlanta. “He curated ideas that a lot of really smart people around him created. He just had good taste.”
Over the course of his business career, Sprecher has achieved success by leaning on the brainchild of other entrepreneurs.
The global exchange CEO said he’s led around 50 acquisitions, and confessed that it’s “much easier to buy somebody else’s hard work and the sacrifice that many others made” and scale it up, rather than start from scratch. Sprecher in fact got his start turning a failing company into a billion-dollar behemoth.
In the late 1990s, Sprecher bought a near-bankrupt electronic trading platform from Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy for just $1,000. He turned it into the Intercontinental Exchange, and more than two decades later, the company boasts a market cap of $98 billion and over 12,000 staffers—and has also proudly owned the NYSE for over a decade.
And it all panned out because of Sprecher’s strategy to curate the brightest minds and most innovative ideas.
“Surround yourself with really good people that have good ideas, and then just curate them,” Sprecher added. “Get rid of the stupid ones and embrace the good ones, and you know, that’s partly why you look smart.”
Fortune reached out to the Intercontinental Exchange for comment.
The CEOs who say being surrounded by smart people is crucial for success
When Sprecher was observing how Jobs achieved whirlwind success, he picked up on an intentional strategy set forth by the Apple cofounder: Jobs had said that he looked to bring the brightest minds into his projects, and let them take the wheel.
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do,” Jobs said during a 1992 lecture.
Even some of the world’s richest businessmen don’t believe they’re above the intelligence of others. Berkshire Hathaway investing legend Buffett says the key to success is spending time with superior people you hope to emulate. With $143 billion to his name and six decades of work experience under his belt, the Oracle of Omaha understands the power that connections have on careers. Quality people will spread some of their magic onto others.
“It’s better to hang out with people better than you,” Buffett advised during Berkshire Hathaway’s 2004 annual shareholders’ meeting. “Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours, and you’ll drift in that direction.”
Virgin Atlantic cofounder Richard Branson echoed that entrepreneurs should rub shoulders with the sharpest minds. The billionaire advised others to hire them, and spare no expense in ensuring they can follow through on their vision: They could create the next unicorn company. “Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you,” Branson wrote in a 2023 LinkedIn post. “Give them everything they need to grow, and your business will thrive.”
