My Mood
Last night I watched “Steve Jobs” on HBO and, in order to obtain a more accurate picture of the man behind Apple, I decided to visit Steve Jobs’ Wikipedia page. I am in the process of reading “Creativity Inc.” by Ed Catmull (the founder of Pixar) and he speaks a lot about Steve Jobs and his management style. Like so many people, when the iPod came out, I purchased that to replace my dated CD player. It truly was a visionary product and I can respect Steve Jobs for his ability to perceive the computing environment and then market computing products slightly differently than his predecessors.
Recently, I hired a friend’s company to do some work for my business. I know that I have been demanding and I am sure he is frustrated. However, as I tried to explain to him, true visionaries have a truly unwavering belief that their product, their idea, their proposed course of action is correct. This view then propels that individual to pursue their idea at all costs; refusing to allow anyone or anything to stand in their way. Rather than seeing the impossibility or futility of their efforts, rather than allowing the status quo to define “the possible,” true visionaries only see the possibility and view any problem or challenge as something that can be overcome. It is that fierceness, conviction and passion that then brings the world a “Steve Jobs” or a “Bill Gates” or a “Pixar.”
Now, I do not believe you need to be a jerk to be a visionary; I believe you have to seek out and be willing to receive wise counsel. It is pretty obvious based upon the company’s history that Steve Jobs was difficult to work with — in fact many of those who knew him closest say he was very smart but incredibly difficult to work with and kind of a jerk. Thus, I do not think you need to become the next “Devil Wears Prada” in order to achieve true success. Instead, I believe you can be driven to achieve your vision while also remaining pleasant to work with.
I also believe that an element of flexibility and a willingness to receive and respond to wise counsel needs to be built into a visionary’s conviction about his or her idea. You will notice that the great visionaries have always been willing to adjust while still holding firm to their core idea and, an unwillingness to adjust generally results in a disaster. Take a look at Steve Jobs. He had a vision for a computer, however, an unwillingness to listen and listen to wise counsel resulted in his unceremonious ousting from Apple. After leaving Apple he created the “NextCube,” which proved highly unsuccessful but led to the creation of the NeXTStep/Intel software which, of course, served as the basis for the creation of the Mac operating system and, eventually, the iTunes store.
The leaders of Pixar also demonstrated flexibility and an ability to receive wise counsel. The company went through extensive ownership, management and personnel changes before it successfully made Toy Story and, occasionally, had to temporarily divert from their goal just to remain in business. For many years, the company was subject to the whims of its financial investors, which left all involved with the near-constant fear that the dream of the first computer animated film would never be realized. Eventually, however, with the assistance of intelligent, perceptive advisors, Toy Story was made propelling Pixar into an overnight success. (Success of course always brings a new set of problems)
I do not know about you, but I frequently hear people talk about their “great idea” for a business or product. Each of the ideas are truly inspiring and you can see that the individual’s entire soul just comes alive a little when talking about the product or business. However, based upon my observations, 99.99% of these people never seek to turn their idea into a reality. They tend to focus on the barriers to success as opposed to asking the quintessential question of “if anything is possible, what would it take to realize my dream?” As I work to bring my dream to reality and my product to market, I ask myself this question constantly. Last year I made a careful exploration of who I am and the work that I am supposed to be doing and, now, I am sinking myself into that work. I resist comparing myself to others and instead focus on doing my creative best. Now, this is not always easy, in fact it is really hard and it takes so much out of me. However, as I remain flexible and open to wise counsel, I continue to hold an unwavering conviction that my vision, my dream is right.
My Style
As any reader of this blog will know, I absolutely love designer collaborations. As such, I have managed to score a few pieces from the Target/Who What Wear collaboration. In particular, I am a huge fan of this midi length faux-leather skirt (currently on sale). It is very comfortable, although I will need to have it hemmed as it is a bit longer than my ideal midi. I paired it with this great chunky sweater I purchased from J Crew (similar style here). I finished the look with my skin-tone colored Jimmy Choo platform heels to give me an extra bit of height.
