The Science Behind Steve Jobs' Revolutionary Creativity
/“Stay hungry, stay foolish” – Steve Jobs
Steve Wozniak could not believe his eyes - his keyboard actually worked!
He was the first person in history to type a character on a keyboard and see it show up on a computer screen. He could hardly contain his excitement. As soon as he could, he showed the computer he built to his best friend, Steve Jobs.
Jobs was blown away by what he saw in front of him and immediately started asking questions about its possibilities.
“Could the computer ever be networked? Was it possible to take discs for memory storage?”
Wozniak’s goal for this computer was to simply give it away for free to his friends and fellow engineers at the Homebrew Computer club. But Jobs knew that the machine was far too important to give it away for free.
In that box, he saw an opportunity.
He saw the technology revolution that was taking place all around him, and with this computer he could create a company that would lead the way. So he convinced Wozniak to become his business partner and the two created “Apple Computer.”
Starting a Revolution
Wozniak and Jobs got right to work on the new company. Wozniak putting the finishing touches on the Apple I computer and Jobs going out to find people to buy it.
After a live demo the computer, Jobs sold an order of 50 Apple I's to a small store in Paolo Alto. Great news! Except that Apple did not have the parts, labor, or capital to actually produce the order. But that was irrelevant to Jobs.
Immediately, he started convincing friends to work for him, he convincing dealers to sell their parts on credit, and he convincing Wozniak to spend hours of time after his day job to produce Apple’s first order. And they did.
After that, Jobs knew he was onto something - and it was time to raise some capital!
So he spent hours every single day on the phone in his parents’ kitchen talking to potential investors. He was rejected over and over. He was asking for far too much money, for far too little equity, in a far too risky business.
But Jobs was not discouraged. He knew what was possible.
Then, after getting all those rejections, he finally convinced Mike Markkula, an investor who capitalized on the huge success of Intel, to buy a 33% equity stake in Apple Computer for a total of $250,000.
With Markkula’s capital, Apple Computer was able to create the product that would cement their status amongst the top computer companies in the world – The Apple II.
The Reality Distortion Field
As the company began to grow at a rapid rate, Jobs’ unconventional style was put on display. He wanted absolutely every detail of the projects he worked on to be perfect. He obsessed over quality and would berate members of his team for giving him “shit work”.
So Apple's board decided he wasn't ready to run the company. And sent him to run just one product; the Mactintosh.
When he joined the Macintosh team, he showed what was both his best trait as well as his biggest flaw – his reality distortion field. To Jobs, everything in his mind was not only possible, but it was actually real.
He would tell his engineers to get something that would take over year done in 6 months. He would make his team work on his completely insane visions of the future. And once they got working on his crazy ideas, they suddenly saw they could become real!
“You did the impossible because you didn’t realize it was impossible!” said Debby Coleman, one of the members of the Macintosh team. She was one of many engineers who were inspired to question the rules of what they knew about the world and computing.
A prime example of his reality distortion came when Jobs was frustrated by how long the Mac took to start up. The engineer said it couldn't start any faster, but Jobs was relentless.
“If making the Mac start up 10 seconds faster would save someone’s life, could you do it?”
That engineer then proceeded to make it 27 seconds faster!
For years, Jobs and his team bent the rules of reality as they built the Mac. Then in 1984, they released the Macintosh personal computer to the world. It was powerful, user-friendly, and affordable for the common man. It was his greatest achievement to date.
This reality distortion did have a downside, however. Jobs didn't obey the rules, took credit for other people's work, and constantly lied about what was actually real - even denying a paternity test that proved he was a father.
This arrogance, deception, and denial of anything that didn’t fit his idea of reality would ultimately lead to his demise. In 1985, fed up with Jobs’ behavior, the board of directors kicked him out of Apple. [1]
The Dimensional Mind
Steve Jobs is flawed. He was arrogant, ruthless, and cold to many of the people in his life.
However, the reason he acted this way is the same one as why he was able to be a revolutionary innovator and make the world a better place for the rest of us. He believed that the rules did not apply to him.
The rules about computers only being efficient business machines didn’t apply. The rules about what an engineer was capable of didn’t apply. And when he returned to Apple 12 years later, the rules about turning a seemingly hopeless company into a great one didn't apply.
But do you need to be a cold, arrogant, egomaniac in order to develop Jobs' creativity?
The answer is no. The core of Jobs' creativity comes from the "Dimensional Mind".
The dimensional mind is one that is open, one that is curious, one that simply learns and observes without any ideas of what is possible or impossible.
This is the mindset Jobs used to see the world differently. And, like the teams he worked with at Apple, it is one that you can develop yourself.
HOW TO DEVELOP JOBS' UNIQUE CREATIVITY
The dimensional mind is how we saw the world when we were "foolish" children, and developing it will help open your mind to the unlimited possibilities that Jobs saw throughout his life.
Below are some proven ways to develop Jobs' creativity without his arrogance:
1. PRACTICE CURIOSITY
You probably take so many things in your world for granted. You see a kitchen table as just a kitchen table, you see a computer as just a computer and a car as just a car. But where did they all come from? How do they all work?
When you were child, you asked questions like that. You saw a car driving by like it was a rocket ship and wondered how it all works. You were curious about everything around you and that trained your brain to be more open.
Then, as you grew older, you began to accept everything in the world around you simply as it is. Your curiosity about things ended and you began to train your mind to be closed. As you know, the brain works like a muscle.
So take 10-15 minutes every day to simply be more curious about the world around you. Look at people, objects and technology and simply wonder, “why?” You don’t even need to find the answer. You just need to open your mind to the question. [3]
2. MEDITATE
There are few better ways to train your mind than through meditation. And one of the main benefits of meditation is the rewiring of the brain to have less judgment and more empathy.
This will influence your subconscious mind to avoid placing judgment on everything you see, which will allow you to be more open and curious. It only requires 10 minutes of daily meditation to make a significant impact on your subconscious. [8]
To get started, check out this article which will list all of the benefits of meditation and give you some helpful exercises to get started.
3. DETACH YOUR EGO FROM YOUR IDEAS
We have a natural tendency to attach ourselves to our ideas. We believe that they represent our character, intelligence and values. So when they are challenged, we do not feel as if the idea is being challenged, but our own character.
In order to develop your creativity, you must learn to detach yourself from this.
You must be open to learning, growing, and constantly changing your ideas and beliefs. The only way you can do this is by recognizing that your current ideas do not define who you are. They are merely the best understanding of your world at the current time.
If you can learn to detach your ego from your beliefs, you will be much more open to new and better ideas that come across your path. [2]
4. LET GO OF YOUR NEED TO JUDGE
We all have an ideal world that is based on our own belief system. So when you spend your time walking around, watching TV, or observing others' behavior, you judge everything you see against how you believe things should be.
Every time you do this, you are training your brain to become more close-minded. You are reinforcing your own rules and not expanding them to another person’s perspective.
To overcome this tendency, you must identify the situations where you begin to judge others. By recognizing the situation, you can begin to try to open your mind and see things from the other person’s point of view.
This trains the mind to become more open to new ideas, perspectives, and beliefs – helping you develop your creativity. [6]
5. BECOME MORE MINDFUL OF YOUR DECISIONS
We tend to believe that every choice we make throughout the day goes through a process of well-informed decision-making. But 45% of your daily-decision are made completely automatically. [5]
What you decide to eat, what you decide to wear and what you decide to do when you first get to work, are all made by your brain running on autopilot. These automatic choices are formed with the same part of the brain that wants to tune out opposing ideas.
By running on autopilot, you are essentially being close-minded in your daily decisions. This trains the brain to become close-minded in its higher thinking as well.
To overcome this start questioning why you are taking the elevator instead of the stairs, why you check your email when you do, and why you brush your teeth before you shower. It sound silly, but simply questioning your decisions in this way will train your creative mind. [7]
Conclusion
Steve Jobs is one of the most interesting figures the world has ever seen. He is both an inspiration, and an asshole. He is both a genius, and a fool. And he is both creative, and disciplined.
He was at the front of the technology revolution because he saw the world differently. He felt the rules of science, engineering, and even common sense did not apply to him. With this disregard of reality he was able to create some of the most amazing products ever built.
To achieve the same success as Steve Jobs, you must fight against the tendency to accept things as they are, judge others based on your own values, and attaching your ego to your ideas. You must train your mind to be open and never be satisfied with what you have learned.
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.