What I Learned from Steve Jobs

I just finished the Steve Jobs biography (on my iPhone, appropriately). What a fascinating man. And honestly? A real jerk. But there's a lot I took away from reading the biography. Jobs built a company of A-players. Purity was everything to him. One B-player at Apple was enough to bring down all nearby A-players. This was true of both employees and products. Jobs was committed to just a handful of perfect products, rather than a slew of mediocre offerings (cough... Microsoft....cough). Jobs understood purity in function and design could only be achieved by focusing all his A-players' attention on only his A-products.


I found myself thinking of Jobs yesterday as I was purchasing cheese at Cowgirl Creamery. Yes, the cheese is going to be more expensive than your typical block of packaged cheddar from Safeway. But one delicious bite of Cowgirl cheese, and suddenly you understand product purity as much as Jobs did. I didn't need to buy a huge bag of shredded cheese for the baked mac n cheese I had planned for dinner. Instead, a smaller chunk of heavenly Cowgirl cheese would provide a better flavor, because it's perfection in a product.


I also followed Jobs' philosophy throughout the rest of the house. Jobs was a huge proponent of beauty in design working seamlessly with function. I thought of this as I went through my closet and stripped out all my B-player items. What remained was a small set (2 drawers and 15 hangers) of an A-player wardrobe only. Not only did this simplify my routine each morning, I also feel great in every outfit I put together, without being mired down in abundant but mediocre options. My empty closet is also much more navigable as well!


Same goes for decorations, wall hangings, curtains, tchotchkes, bathroom products, and stuff lingering in the back of kitchen cabinets. If it's not perfect, out the door it went (to a thrift shop of course).


Steve Jobs taught me that life is too short for B-players, be it cheese, an old sweater, or a weird statue of a man I had on a shelf because I didn't know what the heck else to do with it. By paring down my life to A-player items only, not only am I appreciating the purity of the products I am keeping, I'm also simplifying my life and clearly defining my priorities. Jobs never settled for anything less than exactly the life and products and company he wanted to build. So why should we?