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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Leadership lessons to learn from and live by
Push for Perfection
Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.
- Steve Jobs
As a young boy, Jobs had always been a stickler for perfection and this continued throughout his adult life and career at Apple. When he was a child, he had helped his father build a fence around their backyard and his father made mention that the same amount of care taken on the front should be taken on the back of the fence. To this, Steve responded, “but no one will ever know.” His father replied, “but you will know.” A true craftsman uses a good piece of wood even for the back of a cabinet against the wall. His father went on to explain, so the same should be done for the back of the fence. It was the mark of an artist to have such a passion for perfection. This moment resonated with him.
Details matter, it's worth waiting to get it right.
- Steve Jobs
During the development of almost every creation he ever worked on, Jobs would hit the pause button and head back to the drawing board because he just didn't feel the products were perfect. If it wasn't perfect, it wasn't good enough.
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
- Steve Jobs
This extended beyond his Apple products, an example of this was with the movie Toy Story. During its development, the team at Disney that had bought the rights to the Pixar movie kept pushing Pixar to make the film edgier and darker. It got to the point Jobs and the director, decided to halt production and rewrite the story to make it friendlier instead.
With the iPhone, the original design had the glass screen set in an aluminum case. One morning, Jobs went to Jony Ive. “I didn't sleep last night, because I realized that I just don't love it,” he said. To his dismay, Ive instantly realized that Jobs was right. The focal point of the design was the display, but as it was, the aluminum case was competing with the glass display instead. It was at that moment
Jobs announced to the team, “guys, you've killed yourselves over this design for the last nine months, but we're going to change it. We're all going to have to work weekends, and if you want, we can hand out some guns so you can kill us now.” Without hesitation, the team agreed. “It was one of my proudest moments at Apple,” Jobs shared.
His passion for creating a “dent in the universe” and his drive for perfection in everything he touched revolutionized 6 industries; phones, music, animated movies, PCs, tablets and digital publishing.
There's no such thing as perfect, some believe. Although, it does make you wonder, perfection was a principle that pushed a man to be one of the greatest innovators of our time. What great things could we accomplish if we also pushed for the same. What do we really have to lose?
Contributed by Oye Jolaoso Source: Harvard Business Review
PAGE 3 INSIDE ACCESS | JULY 2020 2ND EDITION