From Career Quagmire to Genius Mindset: The "Winning Product" Strategy That Reshaped Apple and Inspired Entrepreneurs
Introduction
In the world of business and technology, success is measured not by the effort expended, but by the strategy adopted. Individuals often find themselves trapped between the desire for independence and self-realization, and the false security of a routine job. This was the dilemma faced by Chris Wayne, a young British man whose story was highlighted by Oberlo magazine in 2022. The story of Chris, a recent university graduate working eight hours a day in Manchester, is the story of millions of young people around the globe: a seemingly stable life, yet devoid of inspiration. Chris articulated his frustration with heartfelt words: "I can’t imagine myself sitting at a desk for the rest of my life... My whole life I have had this desire to run my own project, but the problem is that I don’t know how to start."
This question of "How do I start?" opens the door to the rigorous world of entrepreneurship. It is a world where the failure rate is estimated at 90% in the first year, and almost 99% within five years. Yet, in the midst of this challenge, Chris discovered a simple key that transformed his life: the principle of "The Winning Product." This principle is not merely a business tactic; it is the philosophy that saved the tech giant Apple from the brink of bankruptcy in the nineties, and it has become the common factor between a young entrepreneur seeking independence and the geniuses of Silicon Valley. It is a story that repeats throughout history: when focus on the revolutionary product is lost, the giant collapses; when the focus returns, fortunes are made.
1. The Turning Point: Chris and E-commerce in 2017
In 2017, Chris Wayne was searching for an escape from his professional routine. The discovery was crucial: a YouTube clip discussing e-commerce. The idea was particularly attractive because it presented a simple business model that transcended the traditional complexities of trade. E-commerce did not require renting a store, hiring a large number of employees, or needing vast warehouses for goods. Crucially, in some of its areas, one could even start without significant capital.
 |
But the illusion that things would be easy quickly vanished. Chris launched five consecutive online stores, and lost money in every single one. He continued to try and fail until he discovered the terrifying rule that changed everything: The Winning Product.
Chris told the journalist who wrote the article: "I stumbled upon a product... one product that compensated me for all my previous losses and completely exploded my profits." Moreover, he realized the "rule" or "formula" by which any product could be judged as a winner or not. Within just two years, his net worth exceeded half a million dollars (over 2 million Saudi Riyals). This was the very same strategy that another genius had mastered decades earlier: Steve Jobs.
2. The Historical Parallel: Apple Between Jobs, Sculley, and Cook
To delve into the concept of the "Winning Product," we must reflect on the story of Apple, a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 1990s. The historical irony presented in the script is that the disastrous mistake made by Tim Cook (Apple's current CEO) is the very same mistake made by John Sculley (the former CEO who famously fired Steve Jobs in the eighties).
Apple's Strategy in the Post-Jobs Era (1980s and 1990s): The Killer Expansion
 |
When John Sculley, the CEO hired by Jobs himself, fired the founder of the company in 1985, the two disagreed on the company's strategy:
Jobs' Vision: Focusing on customer satisfaction, maintaining price stability, and developing one single, truly revolutionary product each year.
Sculley's Vision: Focusing on investor satisfaction, increasing the volume of products offered, and raising prices to boost sales quantitatively.
What happened after Jobs' firing was catastrophic. Sculley and his team produced more than 70 different products, each with its own complexities. The customer felt utterly confused; they no longer knew which Apple product to buy. Conversely, prices skyrocketed without offering real added value to the user, while competing IBM devices were easier and cheaper. Apple transformed from a symbol of simplicity and value into a symbol of complexity and greed.
The Knockout Blow: In 1995, Microsoft announced the launch of the revolutionary "Windows 95" operating system, which sold more than 7 million copies in its first week. This was the final blow to Apple, which, by 1997, was only weeks away from declaring bankruptcy, with its stock price plummeting to just 10 cents.
3. Back to Basics: Steve Jobs' Revolution and the Winning Product
In 1997, Steve Jobs returned as CEO after Apple acquired his new company (Next) for $400 million. It was the greatest comeback in tech history.
Cleaning the Product Graveyard: The first thing Jobs did was hold intensive meetings to understand the purpose of the 70+ products on the market. The answers were heartbreaking: most devices were launched without a clear objective, or without a genuine study of customer or market needs. Jobs made a decisive decision in his first week: eliminate more than 70% of Apple's products and lay off 3,000 employees, declaring: "We will make the production line reduce the products, so we will have fewer products but better products."
Focus on the Four Pillars: Jobs decided to focus production on only four products:
Mac: A computer for general consumer use.
Power Mac: A computer for professionals.
iBook: A portable laptop for general use.
PowerBook: A portable laptop for professionals.
Launching the Revolutionary Giants: The series of revolutionary products, all based on the "Winning Product" principle, began:
1998: Launch of the iMac, which was arguably the most-sold computer in history at the time.
2001: Launch of the iPod with the slogan "1,000 songs in your pocket." It solved the problem of carrying CDs and achieved massive success.
2007: Launch of the iPhone. This device did not just change Apple; it changed the world forever, merging the functions of a phone, iPod, and internet device into one revolutionary product.
2010: Launch of the iPad.
Jobs' secret was that every product he launched was a Winning Product: it solved a real problem and offered unparalleled added value. This is the same strategy discovered by young Chris Wayne after five consecutive e-commerce failures.
4. Repeating the Mistake: The Expansion Mindset Under Tim Cook
In the early years of Tim Cook's tenure as CEO, Apple continued to introduce focused and pioneering products like Apple Pay and the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch, in particular, was a winning product by all measures, becoming the best-selling watch in history among all traditional watch brands.
However, over time, the "dark ages" began to return, and the unlimited expansion mindset previously pursued by John Sculley was repeated. Apple began to inflate its product lines: 17 million types of iPhone, multiple varieties of iPad, Mac, and Mac Pro, and finally, the mysterious Vision Pro glasses which have so far failed miserably.
 |
The iPhone is released annually with nearly the same shape and features, without true revolutionary innovation apart from minor camera, processor, and OS improvements, but with a terrifying price increase. What Tim Cook is doing today is an exact replica of what Sculley did in the eighties and nineties: the Winning Product strategy died with Steve Jobs, replaced by a strategy of quantitative expansion and satisfying investors rather than customers.
5. The Practical Methodology: How to Identify the Winning Product?
The most critical question facing any nascent entrepreneur is: How can I identify The Winning Product?
Identifying this product requires more than just intuition or belief in an idea; it demands a scientific and practical methodology, as detailed in specialized training courses (like the one the narrator attended). The methodology is summarized in four main axes:
Axis 1: Defining Direction and the Merchant Mentality Before choosing a product, one must define the direction and the type of online store: Will it be your own store, or will you list your goods on platforms like Amazon? Will it be a marketplace for aggregated goods, or a brand (Private Label) store?
Crucially, one must adopt the Merchant Mentality, which differs entirely from the consumer mindset. For instance, a consumer sees the Oral-B toothbrush as a single product, while a merchant sees the real product as the replaceable brush heads, and the brush handle itself is merely a vehicle to ensure the continuous purchase of the heads. The merchant sees costs, mechanisms, and sustainability, while the consumer sees instantaneous value and price.
Axis 2: Product Identification and Profitable Site Research This axis requires practical application using specialized market analysis tools and websites. These sites provide the merchant with data on the best-selling products globally or in a specific country, displaying numbers and sales locations. The merchant must use specific filters (e.g., sales, reviews, growth) to identify a shortlist of potential winning products.
Axis 3: Product Evaluation and Competitor Study In this stage, a Scoring Formula is applied, which gives each nominated product a numerical score or rating. If the score exceeds a certain threshold, the product is considered a winner (e.g., gold or silver status). This formula is the secret discovered by Chris Wayne that recovered his losses.
After evaluation, competitors must be studied: If a product is profitable but many people sell it, how do you compete? By identifying markets where the product is still needed but competitors have not yet reached.
Axis 4: Smart Launch After identifying the Winning Product (which may be only one product, as Steve Jobs proved), the launch phase begins:
Mechanisms for sourcing, selling, and developing the product.
Marketing strategies.
Performance evaluation within two or three months to begin adjustment and improvement.
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence: AI tools must be harnessed to extract data, analyses, and market insights, not to perform the entire work for you.
Conclusion: A Timeless Strategy That Transcends Eras
The story of Chris Wayne, which began with professional frustration and ended with wealth, is merely a reflection of Apple's story of rise and fall. The common link among all four experiences (Jobs, Cook, Sculley, and Wayne) is a single strategy:
When focus on the revolutionary Winning Product is lost (as happened under Sculley and is happening under Cook now): Products accumulate, prices rise, customers become dissatisfied, and the company collapses or declines.
When the focus returns to the Winning Product (as happened under Jobs and as discovered by Chris Wayne): Companies succeed, fortunes are made, and the landscape of the industry changes.
The Winning Product is one that solves a real customer problem, offers value for money, and enjoys sustained demand. For any entrepreneur seeking to enter the world of e-commerce, devotion to this strategy is the only guarantee to overcome the high failure rates and transform the desire for independence into a profitable reality. As history has proven and reality confirmed, one single Winning Product is enough to launch your own revolution.