“Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?” said Steve Jobs when inviting John Sculley to work at Apple.

Neither realized however, that from there on in, neither of their careers would ever be the same.

It goes without saying that Steve Jobs is perhaps the most famous business leader of all time. Since his untimely death from a battle with pancreatic cancer age 56, the Apple founder has become a deified figure, with each new product launch surrounded by commentator’s penning their thoughts asking what Steve Jobs would have done.

This week’s guests legacy is a much quieter matter altogether.

Hot Topics gained some leadership lessons from John Sculley, the mild mannered New Yorker, who was president of Pepsi and controversially took the reigns of Apple for over a decade until 1993.

Much is to be said about his time at Apple, more so after the release of Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed film: Steve Jobs. Yet nothing should be taken away from the man who led the company through one of its most turbulent periods, be that a bitter war with Microsoft, or the power struggles that emerged after Jobs’ exit.

Today Sculley works in more of an advisory fashion to a number of startups working to solve real-world problems in a variety of industries from healthtech to finance.

His experience naturally has made him the perfect person to become a second set of eyes for nascent CEOs, opening doors, providing capital and forming strategic partnerships to help businesses flourish.

In this episode ‘Leadership lessons from John Sculley’ Hot Topics found out that it is an an “insatiable curiosity” that got Sculley to where he is today.

For more leadership lessons from John Sculley, listen to this week’s episode of the Hot Topics podcast above.