There Is No Shortcut

There Is No Shortcut

Monday, November 7, 2011

Creative Genius; Steve Jobs : One Last thing


This post is a bit of a way to say “I’m sorry” that I did not cover the passing of Steve Jobs. Like many other people, I was saddened by the passing of the man who had an enormous influence on this world, more in particular technology.

After writing last week’s post on my mustache growing project (link and donations here), I was captivated watching a piece on the life of Steven Paul Jobs, an unofficial 50 minute biography. You can watch the very interesting video here or on PBS. The video is named Steve Jobs: One Last Thing.

Watch Steve Jobs: One Last Thing on PBS. See more from PBS Presents.


What I took away from this

The show was a great demonstration of Steve Jobs creative genius and great drive. Like many other pioneers, Jobs did spend a large amount hours before having his big break. Very young, he was lucky enough to be surrounded by many Silicon Valley pioneers. Add to that, Jobs had a keen interest into electronics and met his future business partner, Steve Wozniak, in his neighborhood. This is similar to a previous post when we discussed Edison’s partner Edwin C. Barnes, but the meeting was less of a challenge.

Towards the end of the video, the journalist interviewed his friends on how Jobs got the idea of the iPad. They said in the 80’s, Jobs drew a figure of something that looked like a book that would enable us to communicate and share together, which 30 years later gave the iPad. How did he get these ideas? Even shortly before his death and all his life, Steve used to take very long walks and think of, like Bill Gates said, “Where is the next bet?”. Other than using drugs and taking a trip to India to meditate, he found his method of building his ideas in the simple method of walking. So, here the top 10 reasons why Steve Jobs was a success:  
  1. Found his interest young. (early 10K)
  2. Kept constant improvement as a way of conducting business.
  3. Jobs surrounded himself with talented people.
  4.  He never accepted the status-quo. He always challenged what is current, even with his employees.
  5. He leveraged everything he had and made great connections to save him when things went bad. (Ross Perot after Jobs quit Apple in the 80’s, Bill Gates when he came back) His own emergency kit. 
  6. He channeled his best talent with great passion.
  7. He found the way to trigger his creativity.
  8. Thought big, really big.
  9. Knew who he was. He knew his weaknesses and evolved through time.
  10. Lastly, he grew out of the cookie cutter and remained himself.

I am looking now for my own method of finding creativity. I did not reach my 10,000 hours yet, but being able to know how your creative brain spills out the goods is key to fix problems, plan ahead and achieve something truly great. It is the next logical step when you complete your 10K and you evolve into a monstrous force. 
What I recently found is that running/jogging tends to keep my head clear which produces ideas and tools and solutions. I really hope it while provide results similar to Jobs, but I will not bore you with this!
Now I ask you, how do you find your ideas? How does your own creative genius shows its great power? I am really interested into how your ideas are conveyed and how we, the 10000 hours community, can benefit from our ideas. 

Comments are re-opened.

See you next week.

P.S.: New mustache photo will be uploaded tomorrow. Movember is growing strong!


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