Steve Jobs has a famous quote about innovation and focus. During the World Wide Developer Conference in 1997 an audience member asked Steve Jobs about OpenDoc and Steve replied "What about it?", then followed up with "It's dead isn't it?". The audience got a good laugh out of this, but Steve Jobs went on to talk about one of the fundamental principles by which he would go on to manage apple.
"When you think about focusing, focusing is saying yes. No, focusing is about saying no. Focusing is about saying no. You've got to say no no no. And when you say no you piss off people."
"Focus is about saying no and the result of that focus is gonna be some really great products where the total is much greater than the some of the parts.
A great example of how Steve Jobs refocused Apple's product line. Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 as part of Apple's acquisition of NeXT, a computer company Jobs had started after leaving Apple. When jobs returned as an advisor to the CEO he found a company was not in good shape. Michael Dell was quoted as saying that he would "Shut down the company and give the money back to the shareholders." This was a little premature, but in Dell's perspective he couldn't see how Apple could be successful going forward. The Apple that had popularized the mouse and graphical user interface was struggling badly and perhaps only 6 to 12 months from bankruptcy.
While many leaders would have looked at the state of the organization and decided that the best course of action was to liquidate or go bankrupt and attempt to restructure, Steve Jobs took a different approach. During a meeting with the senior staff the entire product line was reworked. At the time Apple had multiple versions of the same computer. This was to satisfy marketing or sales departments that wanted largely identical machines with small differences to please their clients or retailers. The result was that it was impossible, for even the leadership at Apple, to clearly explain who should buy which machine.
To remedy this confusion Jobs slashed Apple's product line by 70 percent. Gone were the multiple identical product lines, the first mass market digital assistant the Newton and unfortunately 3,000 employees. What remained was a highly focused product line. A product line that made it easy for consumers to understand which was the right model for them and easy for the folks inside the company to understand how to build, market and sell those products.
Where Apple had had multiple similar models in the pro and consumer spaces for both desktops and laptops, Steve sampled that. He walked into a meeting and drew a cross on the board. On both sides you saw the worlds Laptop and Desktop and at the top of one column was Pro and on top of the other column was Consumer. Now rather than having multiple confusing lines you had the iBook and the Powerbook. You had the iMac and the PowerMac. That ability to say no to the people asking for multiple slightly different versions of the same product was a key to allowing Apple's internal teams to focus. It was instantly easy for anyone to understand which product was right for them. It also made it easy for Apple's engineers to focus on building the right things.
Working at Apple when Steve Returned was a young designer named Jony Ive. Jony went on to lead Apple's design team and have a tremendous influence not just at Apple, but in industrial design across the entire technology sector. Jony and Steve were very similar in their understanding of what focus truly meant. Jony also knew the value of saying no and was quoted as saying so.
"What focus is is saying no to something that with every bone in your body is a phenomenal idea. And you wake up thinking about it but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else."
By saying no to doing so many things you are led to focus on what really matters. You are left to devote all of your energy into the most important things. You are no longer distracted or stretched thin trying to please everyone.
A good analogy of why you must focus is the piece of furniture called the futon. When you first hear of the futon you think this might be a good idea. This is a simple couch that turns into a simple bed. It allows a lot of versatility in how you design a room. In practice though it's an awful piece of furniture. It is not a good couch and it's a terrible bed.
As the old saying goes "Jack of all trades, master of none.". That means that when you attempt to have a focus that encompasses all things it will result in you being mediocre at everything. You cannot reach the level of mastery in carpentry if you're framing a house on Tuesday, building concrete forms on Wednesday, installing trim on Thursday and building a cabinet on Friday. You'll perhaps gain passable competence in some of these areas, but you will never truly achieve greatness.
You can only achieve greatness by identifying what truly matters, focusing on it relentlessly and then steadfastly saying no and cutting out what distracts you from that greater purpose. You must apply this to your own life and work in order to achieve great things. Look at what you are doing today and what your truly fundamental goals in life and work are. Ask yourself with every task that is presented to you, if it allows you to pursue those fundamental goals. If it does, then do it. If it does, not don't do it. Say no, recommend someone else do it.
Saying no is not easy, but it is possible. Saying no will be scary at first, but over time will become easier and easier. In fact, it's possible to achieve more by doing less. It's possible to get more respect by declining work than it is by sayings to everything.
I've written about this before. Check out these other articles about how to apply these principles:
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