{"id":551948,"date":"2026-01-29T16:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551948\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:32:13","slug":"inspired-by-steve-jobs-new-york-stock-exchanges-owner-says-successful-leaders-surround-themselves-with-smart-people-and-get-rid-of-the-stupid-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551948\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by Steve Jobs, New York Stock Exchange\u2019s owner says successful leaders surround themselves with smart people\u2014and \u2018get rid of the stupid ones\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late Apple<\/a> cofounder Steve Jobs<\/a> has inspired a legion of entrepreneurs hoping to define the next era of business. Despite never meeting the tech legend, Intercontinental Exchange<\/a> founder Jeffrey Sprecher<\/a> hails Jobs as a \u201cmentor,\u201d and credited the pioneer for teaching him a critical lesson on career success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve Jobs was Apple<\/a>, right? But he didn\u2019t really write code or invent anything,\u00a0 Sprecher said recently at<\/a> the Rotary Club Of Atlanta. \u201cHe curated ideas that a lot of really smart people around him created. He just had good taste.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the course of his business career, Sprecher has achieved success by leaning on the brainchilds of other entrepreneurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The global exchange CEO said he\u2019s led around 50 acquisitions, and confessed that it\u2019s \u201cmuch easier to buy somebody else\u2019s hard work and the sacrifice that many others made\u201d and scale it up, rather than start from scratch. Sprecher even got his start turning a failing company into a billion-dollar behemoth.<\/p>\n

In the late 1990\u2019s, Sprecher bought<\/a> Warren Buffett<\/a>\u2019s near-bankrupt electric utility company, MidAmerican Energy, for just $1,000. He turned it into the Intercontinental Exchange<\/a>, and more than two decades later, the company boasts a market cap of $98 billion and more than 12,000 staffers\u2014and has also proudly owned the NYSE for over a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it all panned out because of Sprecher\u2019s strategy to curate the brightest minds and most innovative ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSurround yourself with really good people that have good ideas, and then just curate them,\u201d Sprecher added. \u201cGet rid of the stupid ones and embrace the good ones, and you know that\u2019s partly why you look smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortune reached out to the Intercontinental Exchange for comment.<\/p>\n

The CEOs who say being surrounded by smart people is crucial for success<\/p>\n

When Sprecher was observing how Jobs came into whirlwind success, he picked up on an intentional strategy set forth by the Apple cofounder. Jobs has said that<\/a> he looks to bring the brightest minds onto his projects, and let them take the wheel when it comes to their talents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t 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,\u201d Jobs said during a<\/a> 1992 lecture.<\/p>\n

Even some of the world\u2019s richest businessmen don\u2019t believe they\u2019re above the smarts of others. Berkshire Hathaway<\/a> investing legend Buffett says the key to success is spending time with superior people you hope to emulate. With $143 billion<\/a> to his name and six decades of work experience under his belt, the Oracle<\/a> of Omaha understands the power that connections have on careers. Quality people will spread some of their magic onto others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better to hang out with people better than you,\u201d Buffett advised<\/a> during Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s 2004 annual shareholders\u2019 meeting. \u201cPick out associates whose behavior is better than yours, and you\u2019ll drift in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgin Atlantic<\/a> cofounder Richard Branson<\/a> echoed that entrepreneurs should rub shoulders with<\/a> the sharpest minds. The billionaire advised others to hire them, and spare no expense in ensuring they can follow through on their vision\u2014they could create the next unicorn company.
\u201cSurround yourself with people that are smarter than you,\u201d Branson wrote in a 2023 LinkedIn post<\/a>. \u201cGive them everything they need to grow, and your business will thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs has inspired a legion of entrepreneurs hoping to define the next era of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":551949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[600,5229,239,21028,17900,16778,18313,9604,607,18315,3062,176472,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1087,161518,88478,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,242093,4327],"class_list":{"0":"post-551948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-apple","11":"tag-berkshire-hathaway","12":"tag-career-advice","13":"tag-careers","14":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","15":"tag-entrepreneurs","16":"tag-entrepreneurship","17":"tag-founders","18":"tag-intelligence","19":"tag-intercontinental-exchange","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-city","22":"tag-newyork","23":"tag-newyorkcity","24":"tag-ny","25":"tag-nyc","26":"tag-relationships","27":"tag-richard-branson","28":"tag-steve-jobs","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-united-states-of-america","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","33":"tag-us","34":"tag-usa","35":"tag-virgin-atlantic","36":"tag-warren-buffett"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}