You cannot innovate by copying.
Once open source gets good enough, competing with it would be insane.
What can a sales person say to somebody to get them to buy a product that they already use every day if they don't like it? Nothing.
To model yourself after Steve Jobs is like, 'I'd like to paint like Picasso, what should I do? Should I use more red?'
See things in the present, even if they are in the future.
When you find errors in conventional wisdom-when everyone says A and A is not true-you gain competitive advantage. Only a few times do you have to find errors in conventional wisdom to make a living.