Steve Jobs changed the world.
I recently finished the biography Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson. Early this week I shared a 2 part post called “7 ways be like Steve Jobs”
You could call the above the positive Steve Jobs. The Steve Jobs who left a legacy in the form of 2 world-class businesses. The Steve Jobs who helped innovate incredible technology.
However, Jobs could be absolutely insufferable. He was rude and a plain jerk not only to his enemies and competitors but also to his co-workers, friends and family.
2 ways NOT to be like Steve Jobs.
Yesterday I shared the 1st of 2 reasons I don’t want to be Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs valued product (including his businesses) over people. I want to be better than that. People are much more important to me than any product or business.
Today, let me share the 2nd way you should be different than Steve Jobs.
2. Dicipher reality from emotion.
A repeated them throughout the biography was a term created by early Apple employees – the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field (Based on an old Star Trek episode). Jobs bent reality to fit his emotions.
Bud Tribble, a software designer on the original Macintosh described it as:
In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of almost anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.
Another Apple employee, Bill Atkinson said:
He can deceive himself. It allowed him to con people into believing his vision, because he has personally embraced and internalized it.
There were 2 sides to the reality distortion field. The upside was it caused projects to get done (the way Steve wanted them done). The downside was it didn’t take into account other people’s emotions, thoughts or ideas.
Personality Plus & the reality distortion field
The biography, does not discuss the book Personality Plus
by Florence Littauer, but Jobs is a classic Melancholy/Choleric.
The Melancholy personality is thought of as the “auditor” type (rules, lists, evaluations and analysis), but often times includes very artistic and creative people (Steve Jobs). The Choleric personality is a driving force pushing to get task and ideas accomplished (Steve Jobs).
All 4 of the personality traits (Choleric, Melancholy, Sanguine, Phlegmatic) have positives and negatives. The positive outcomes include what I shared earlier this week. A few of the negatives are walking over others to get tasks accomplished (Choleric), controlling with emotions (Melancholy), and waiting for mythical perfection (Melancholy).
Put all 3 of those negatives together and you find the reality distortion field. Jobs would begin to believe something very intensely (as unimportant as a historical fact to the vital product design), and then force it to be believed by others through anger, sadness, joy or any other emotion.
It seemed Jobs had lived in this world for so long, he was unaware of the difference between his emotional attachments and reality. It drove a wedge between him and his staff.
A warning for creative business owners.
Many of you reading this have the same personality mix as Steve Jobs.
How do I know? You are a creative person running a business. The Choleric/Melancholy is a great mix for this pursuit. It is my same personality mix (Though the levels of choleric and melancholic can be different, and I believe mine are probably different from what Steve Jobs mix was).
Here is the warning. Don’t allow your emotions, thoughts and ideas to run unchecked. Whether its internal or external ensure your emotions are based in reality.
Make sure you have people around you (including your staff) share the reality they see, so you can match what you see with it. This means giving people permission to say things that may be hard to hear. It may not be fun.
As Isaacson said above about Steve Jobs…it’s possbile, you just have to choose to do it.
Header image courtesy of Flickr/muteboy
[wp_eStore_fancy2 id=8]
Leave a Reply