"Nasty guy" - Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary shares thoughts on working under Steve Jobs and Elon Musk

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary has been vocal about his time working with Steve Jobs and how much the Apple billionaire had shaped his life and outlook. He has also previously shared his views on Elon Musk and his ability to be laser-focused and "waste zero time" during the day.

In a recent video on Instagram, Kevin shared how he knows Elon so well. It is his experience with him, given the fact that his son, Trevor, works at Tesla. The Shark Tank investor highlighted the often controversial style of leadership of both these men and what makes them highly effective. Drawing a parallel between the same, Kevin says of his former boss Jobs,

"I'm going to say this quickly, but in life, you're going to meet people, and I worked for Steve Jobs; he was about 80% signal, 10% noise. Which means, he was a very focused guy, not easy to work with, a very unpopular, really nasty guy. But he really got it. Elon has no noise. He is a 100% signal."

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary shares how Elon Musk wastes no time during his day

The term Kevin, the Shark Tank investor, used is called to noise ratio. For the unversed, it is used in tech circles to describe the clarity of meaningful content in a sea of distractions. O'Leary says that Musk has a 100% signal, which means that the Tesla CEO has singular focus.

"He wastes zero time in his day because he can't. But it does get him in a lot of trouble in different ways because he'll actually walk away from a conversation with you if it's wasting his time. He realizes that he has zero time to waste."

Steve Jobs, as Kevin says, was not an easy person to work with, despite having room for 10% noise. But then he talks about Elon, who has none. He noted that this behavior might come up as rude and abrupt to those who are not accustomed to his lifestyle.

However, O'Leary says that it is a necessary trade-off given the fact that Elon has achieved so much. His success spans over a variety of projects, such as Tesla in the electric vehicles space and SpaceX in the aerospace industry.

Then he owns X (formerly Twitter,) and now he is working for the government in the DOGE sector. Even though his involvement with the Trump Administration might be controversial, Kevin feels as if Elon is the right man for the job. The Shark Tank investor said,

"There's never been a man like him. You just have to look at what he's achieved, and thank goodness he is doing DOGE right now, he's going to save a sh*tload of money. "

What Kevin is trying to convey to folks is that the ones who are willing to sacrifice popularity and pleasantries for progress and precision are the ones who have often found success in a fast-paced world.

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes release weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. They are later available to watch on Hulu.

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