Apple CEO Tim Cook is a busy man. But in order to understand JUST how busy you only need to look at his daily, morning routine…
TL;DR: Inside Tim Cook’s Life and Leadership
- 🔒 Private & Disciplined: Tim Cook is a private person and fitness enthusiast, waking up at 3:45 am to tackle 600-700 emails, then hitting the gym at 5 am.
- 🧠 Leadership Style: Fair, level-headed, and approachable, Cook asks tons of questions to ensure no detail is missed.
- 💼 Work Ethic: Always first in, last out—especially during launches—Cook’s dedication is unmatched.
- 📈 Success: Under Cook, Apple became a trillion-dollar company, with Cook staying humble and respectful throughout.
Running a company like Apple has to be stressful. Apple is one of the biggest, most profitable, and well-known brands on the planet. It has hundreds of thousands of employees, makes billions in profit every quarter, and spends tens of millions of dollars every month on overhead costs like its staff, its premises, and its supply chain.
Tim Cook sits right at the top of the food chain at Apple, overseeing everything. This is a huge responsibility but it is something Cook has consistently handled with style and grace since taking over from Steve Jobs after his untimely passing in 2011. Since then, Apple has gone from strength to strength under Cook’s leadership, cementing itself as the world’s first trillion-dollar company.
Since 2011, Cook has sold more than $1.5 billion in Apple stock, creating one hell of a net worth. Of course, ALL of Cook’s future stock options are based on performance, so if Apple tanks, so do his regular, massive pay days.
And as CEOs go, Cook is an absolute gentleman too. Try and find a negative story about him online. You can’t. The man’s a saint. And, like Jobs, he is directly responsible for saving Apple from its death spiral, although Cook seldom gets the credit he deserves here – few know that it was Cook and Jobs’ partnership that saved Apple from extinction. This is why, when Jobs died, Cook took over. He was the heir apparent.
But what does it take to run a company like Apple? Obviously, a keen mind and plenty of intelligence but beyond this, there is something else that is required: an INSANE work ethic. And Cook’s is legendary, as is his morning routine…
Tim Cook’s INSANE Morning Routine
Cook is an intensely private man, he keeps his personal life to himself and is an avid fitness enthusiast. He uses a private gym on Apple’s campus and is usually in there from 5 am every day which explains why he cuts such a lithe figure despite being in his 60s and having one of the most stressful jobs on the planet.
Cook is an early riser too. But his definition of early is just bonkers. Early for me is 6 am. For Cook, 6 am is basically brunch. Tim Cook wakes up every day at 3:45 am. He then, presumably with coffee in hand, tackles in the region of 600 to 700 vital emails – he does this EVERY DAY, remember – before hitting the gym at 5 am.
With his emails and workout completed, Cook then heads into work, usually around 8 am or 9 am. Cook likes to lead by example and makes sure he is ALWAYS first through the door in the morning and last out at night. He also works round the clock when Apple is in the throes of a major launch, often emailing staff at 2 am or 3 am in the morning.
What is Tim Cook Like To Work With?
Cook is an intensely private person, and Apple is an intensely private company. But there are enough sources and interviews with ex-Apple employees online to get a decent read on what Tim Cook is like to work with. Compared to Jobs, Cook’s management style is very different – he is much more level-headed and fair-handed. He is NOT prone to flying off the handle, as Jobs was.
If hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy – Tim Cook, proving that not all heroes wear capes.
During interviews about his management style, Apple employees – both ex and current – have stated that Cook is a firm presence, but is always fair. He also likes to ask questions. Lots of questions. According to one Apple employee, if Cook asks you a question, and you answer it correctly, he will have 10 more questions ready to go. He does this to weed out any weak links inside Apple’s HQ.
Beyond this, though, Cook is said to be a very approachable, forthcoming man. He is often pictured having lunch with staff inside Apple HQ, he always has a smile on his face, and he always carries himself in a respectful and amenable fashion. As I said earlier, the guy’s a class act from top to bottom. He works hard, he isn’t showy with his money, and he treats his staff well.
Quotes About What It’s Like To Work With Tim Cook
Here’s a quote from one former Apple employee on what it was like working with Tim Cook:
- No one knows the detail of their business better than Tim. And you’d better know the detail of your part of his business as well.
- Your life is your work. Your work is your life. There is no such thing as work-life balance.
- There is no time for small talk, only purposeful communication in small bite-sized pieces.
- Charm is for bracelets.
- Building your career through job changes makes you a job hopper (read: untrustworthy). Endurance rules.
Basically, if you have any aspirations of being a CEO or a corporate bigwig, Tim Cook is the guy you should be looking to for inspiration. He is more successful at what he does than 99.9% of his peers, he has a natural humility, never coming across as arrogant or abrasive, and he has managed to grow Apple’s valuation from hundreds of billions of dollars to trillions of dollars, earning its investors millions in the process.
What’s the moral of the story here? Simple: be more like Tim Cook.
