The case for having a reality distortion field
Published: Tue, 03/31/20
It is one of the Steve Jobs biographies.
And I primarily listened to it while on my 10-mile walks, and was absolutely enthralled with it start to finish. The man’s life was NOT done justice in the movies made about him, in my opinion. It deserves an entire season or two of Netflix shows.
There are also far too many lessons I gleamed to do it justice in an email.
But two that are very relevant to today’s business climate are:
1. His obsession with time
2. His so-called “reality distortion field.”
A couple examples:
Back in the 80’s, the socialist wife of France’s Prime Minister at the time took a tour of the factory where Apple computers were built. Right on cue, she immediately complained about how Steve Jobs treated his workers, that sounded like something right out of a Bernie Sanders speech. And Steve got extremely pissed off about it, to the point where he hopped in his Rolls-Royce, and started speeding down the highway going 100+ mph.
Of course, a cop pulled him over and wrote him a ticket.
And while the cop was writing the ticket, Steve obnoxiously honks the horn, sticks his head out the window, and snaps at the cop:
“Hurry up!”
I must have laughed for a half hour straight after that part.
Steve Jobs did not just have a sense of urgency about his work and his life.
He had a sense of EMERGENCY.
It’s why he got so much done in so little time, gained massive market share, and it helped build the biggest software company on the planet. Incidentally, a huge part of his sense of urgency came from a place where he always knew he was going to die young. Thus, he lived his life as if he didn’t have much time.
Why is that relevant?
Because as the economy buckles, a similar sense of urgency could very well save your business.
That cop story brings us to the second point:
His “Reality Distortion Field.”
This was a running gag amongst those who worked with him his entire life.
Steve truly believed the rules of common sense, human performance, and even the very time-space continuum did not apply to him. The late, great Gary Halbert used to be the same way, from what I hear. John Carlton talked about this in issue #23 of his old Marketing Rebel Rant newsletter. On the first day of working with Gary, and just ten minutes after Gary gave John an assignment, Gary asked John if it was finished yet.
As John put it:
“He wasn’t joking, either. It wasn’t that he could have come up with copy in that short of time, and was disappointed that I hadn’t. That wasn’t it at all. Nope. Gary just doesn’t always operate in the same time/space continuum everyone else does. It’s not his job to keep track of your efforts. He just wants results. And wants you to not be such a wimp about getting them.”
I can only assume Steve Jobs would have been a huge fan of Gary Halbert’s famous quote:
“Nothing is impossible for someone who refuses to listen to reason!”
Anyway, I believe these two attributes are mandatory right now.
That is, if you want to position your business during these uncertain times, and emerge from this with a far stronger, more profitable, and more secure business.
More:
I show the most valuable notes I took, most valuable insights I learned (and am rapidly applying to my own business, especially now), and most valuable ways I am using this specific Steve Jobs bio and which one (there are many bios) to build my own business, in the 3-page bonus “elBenbo’s Lair” insert inside the April “Email Players” issue.
This is some of the most valuable info I ever done learned.
And I suspect you will find it just as valuable, if not more.
Especially if you combine it with the freelancing, coaching, service business lessons in the main issue.
Deadline is when I send it to the printer in a few tonight.
If you want in you best make like a Steve and hurry up, Pokey:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle