Reflections - To Seek

Focus by Steve Jobs

Juzer — Sat, 25 Feb 2023 02:30:44 +0000

Are you truly focused?

Discover Steve Jobs’ way to practice undisrupted Focus.

I was watching an interview of Jony Ive, Former Chief of Design at Apple Inc. When asked what he learned from Steve Jobs, Ive said in a starstruck manner that Steve was the most remarkably focused person he had ever met! Steve used to say focus is about saying no to things. Not just things which are easy to let go. Focus is about sacrifice. Saying no to ideas you know are brilliant, world changing and invaluable but right now you must focus on your current work.

He explained how Steve wanted to make a tablet once they came across the multi-touch technology but then he also knew a phone with multi-touch would be way more useful, innovative, and game-changing. He was faced with 2 grand ideas to execute, and he focused on the phone and put the tablet (iPad) on a shelf to be visited years later! This is just one instance that we know of, I’m sure since day 1 at Apple there would’ve been multiple times where Steve was faced with this dilemma since he was a multipotentialite.

Furthermore, the bane of saying no to people is that you will not be liked by everyone. People will think you are mean, arrogant or even self-centred. Steve was okay with that. So much that once a harsh critique by Steve led Ive to ask him if he could go a little easy on the team. Steve being Steve said, “You’re vain, you want people to like you”. Jobs wanted Ive’s complete focus to be on their product and nothing else.

This raises the question though, should you be rude or unhelpful? Definitely not!

What I understood from this interview is that saying “no” is of 2 kinds.

Personal and external ideas.

Personal ideas: Students, Entrepreneurs and artists can get several great ideas. You must decide which one needs to be executed first and either put others for later or cancel them out of your mental list entirely. When I say later, its not just days or weeks, it could be years.

E.g., You have a great business idea and simultaneously another problem-solving project that you want to try out. However, depending on your situation you must decide which one will be most beneficial to the world and to you. Maybe the project requires a huge capital and an audience, while your business when executed properly can give you both of those factors. This is when you’ll have to put the project on hold and focus completely on developing your business. Once you gain an audience and a capital to invest in this idea, you’ll pursue it and execute in a much better manner.

External ideas: This doesn’t even have to be an idea. These can be small things. Small tasks. At your house, office or university there will always be someone in need of help. You need to balance out helping them and finishing your own work together. Yes, there will be situations where you must learn to refuse politely if it’s not possible to help someone with their work. I feel its better to decline rather than saying yes and not committing to it because you were too busy. I have been on both ends where I have said yes out of fear of being disliked and then ended up having a lot of work which was stressful. On the other hand, a lot of people have struggled to say no to me and then failed to fulfil the task at hand.

Photo by Jonas Svidras

I believe, to focus is to balance being selfish and being selfless. Too much of either one will always be harmful to you personally and professionally.

You don’t have to be a mean person, but your goal shouldn’t be about making everyone happy. One can be respectful and yet have boundaries, and even then there will be those who dislike you or your manner of work. Being kind and respectful because it’s the right thing to do, is I believe much more profound than being good simply because you want people to like you or pay you a compliment.

Your goal, your focus should completely be on the value you bring to others through your work and craft.

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Contentment is a Treasure which never diminishes.

Juzer — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:58:43 +0000

Amir Al-Mumineen Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib ^SAstates:

“Contentment is a treasure which never diminishes”

A quote which resonates with every human being since the beginning of mankind till the end of life in this temporal world. It highlights the ultimate goal of every human endeavour which is to be satisfied with what one does and whatever fruit one bears as a result thereof.

In our fast-paced lives where our attention is divided in work, people and our interests we tend to get upset with our conditions rather very comfortably. Regardless of what we achieve some of us always feel there is a lack of wealth, recognition or mental peace. It all goes away when we look to those who are in worse conditions than ourselves. When we raise awareness on our social media platforms drawing attention on issues that matter, towards people suffering, crying and dying. That is a little window of time when our anxieties have ceased to exist. The problem is they come back, and the cycle never ends.

Here’s a wild thought. A quick solution to break this cycle would be to permanently stick this concept in our brains:

“There is an invisible list of all the people currently breathing oxygen, and the list is sorted in a chronological order starting from people with the crème de la crème of lifestyles to the worst condition a human being can possibly be in. If there’s even one person beneath you on the list, you do not complain and always enjoy your days no matter what”.

Even if someone is last on this list, I reckon he still has it better than someone who wasted his life complaining and did not wake up this morning to change his story. Even in the worst possible conditions ever to exist on planet Earth, you still have oxygen in your lungs and a mind which gives you the ability to think and try, regardless of where you are on the list. The person who thought he’ll try tomorrow but passed away before he could change his life is like a badly written but published book. You can’t take it back no matter how terrible the story is and how mundane the ending is. It’s there for the world to read and criticise.

However, YOU are still alive. You still have time to change your story. Learn and implement. Correct the mistakes. Do everything in your power to make sure your book, becomes a bestseller.

Being content with whatever you have while still aiming and working towards your dreams takes all worries, anxieties and confusions away. Happiness is a way of thinking. A part of everyone’s lifestyle. We have made the heinous crime of attaching happiness to materialistic objects. One can be happy even when he/she hasn’t yet achieved all that they desire and dream of.The journey towards your goals should be just as enjoyable as the day you finally live your dream. Being stressed and miserable for 4 years at a university, and only being happy when you graduate doesn’t make sense at all.

I’d like to wrap this up by a simple analogy, we all love to travel. Are we happy only when we finally reach our holiday destination? Or do we enjoy the journey to the place as well? Waiting at airports with friends, travelling in trains and buses. We have set a live example that enjoying the journey is part of the overall vacation experience.

We can apply the same concept in all aspects of our lives. Our journey is till our death. It could be tomorrow. It could be 60 years from today. Let’s make it worthwhile.

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