"Focusing is about saying no" - Steve Jobs (WWDC'97) 

Commenting so I get the RU-vid algorithm to show more vids like this

Wow, I never thought about this before. I couldn't figure out why I keep learning more and more, but accomplish less and less. I thought it was lack of focus, but it's actually lack of ability to say 'no'. I want to apply all my knowledge to everything, and end up getting lost in the process.

“A man who searches two rabbits catches none”- executed at the highest level

This applies literally to every aspect of life, from relationships to self motivation

"Focus is about saying no." So true.

Focus is about saying no. But saying no is about the hardest thing there is. Saying no and being wrong (a missed opportunity) is often more painful/catastrophic than saying yes and being wrong (a mistake). I see this often in my career as a project manager in technology where waste just builds up over time because it’s a yes yes yes culture. Unproductive initiatives stretch on and on and we just hire more people to support the lack of focus rather than putting a bullet in the head of some of this crap and saying and take the risk of missing an opportunity.

Putting our time and effort in activities and investments that will yield a profitable return in the future is what we should be aiming for. Success depends on the actions or steps you take to achieve it.

Love how he gives them 100% honesty and gives them the mindset

GOOD!!! "Say No a Thousand Times!!!" - Gratitude!!!

It's 2023 and I need to hear this

Imagine the guts that Steve have had in that time. Everybody must have thought that he was crazy. It shows me the power of his vision for the future, and his charisma to mobilize people towards that future.

Steve Jobs nailed this also. Read a interview with Steven King. When he was writing earlier he got many new ideas about stories he could write "write me, write me". King said he ignored them all off them even if the seemed better then the idea he was writing this feelt often hard to do. But as Steve Jobs said so perfectely "focus is to say no!". No to your own new ideas and no to anything that shift you focus from the goal.

Even more relevant today with the amount of options, choices and distractions. Apply what he says to your life. Say no. Focus and do a few things really well.

My entire childhood, I believed this guy was the genius I must look up to in life. I studied my socks off to become him. I’m 22 now and will graduate from med school next year. I realise now that he was a leader who could inspire people to create his vision, which is a rarity.

Legendary interview. I keep coming back to this every few years and understand it better and better

Jony Ive gave a corollary to this (Jobs often asked him how many things he said no to today, he said this, that, 100 things, but these are things he doeesn't want to do in the first place): it's not saying no to things that you don't really like and have no intention to do in any case (you might be pushed by others to do and decided to say no to feel good about yourself: hey, I'm focused and I sad no), it's about saying no to something you absolutely love and would work 100 hours a week to get it: you say no to this thing because you're already working on another thing you love, as painful as it might be and as much as you feel you can do good with both, so you can do great with one thing.

Less is MORE I finally understand now

One of the best sayings by any CEO....Steve knew what his engineers were truely capable of doin'..

"Ever tried, ever failed, thats alright. Try again, fail again, fail better"

This is one of the best videos I have watched by Steve Jobs

One of the wisest men to have graced the world of business and technology.

“ Focus is about saying no “ ... That’s a golden nugget ⚜️

His archive of WWDC’s should be analyzed in every business class.I wonder how much Apple stock was the day he gave this speech. This man thrived in chaos. He was the first minimalistic CEO. I still have my 80gig iPod I will never sell it. Its a reminder of what true product design is.

I need more videos like this RU-vid

Honestly, I’ve run businesses my entire adult life. If people study Steve’s approach to business, macro to micro, they’ll find 80% of EVERYTHING they need to know to succeed and 100% of bulletproof guiding philosophy. It’s all there. Forget the personal stuff, people get lost in that.

Reminds me of Warren Buffett's advice. In essence: * Make a list of the top 25 things you want to accomplish in the near future. Goals to reach. Possessions to obtain. Relationships to develop. Places to visit or live. Whatever. Be totally honest; no one is going to see this list but you. Don't list things you think you "should" want or would be logical or responsible to want, and don't leave something off because someone would think it silly or irresponsible for you to be wanting it. * Next, go through your list of 25 things carefully again and pick your top 5 desires. Circle, check, or otherwise mark them in some way. * So, obviously, you now know what you're going to be focusing on. Those 5 things. But what about the other 20 things you really want? They are still very meaningful, strong desires and would be great to have. Do you pursue them in your spare time? * No. Those 20 things are what you must absolutely avoid at all costs.

Not the nicest guy, but man did he get shit right.

Brutally honest, and undeniably effective. What a great notion

He really makes so much sense here. I just started my own small business and this is a discussion my wife and I had, and have had several times: you have to learn to say no (turn people away). I can’t fix everything people bring to me, and I should not try. If I get Maier down in something that is not going to be economically feasible(i.e. profitable) then I really should not except working on it. This is where good assessment skills coming to play and why I decided to start my business based on my medical experience.

Never realized that focusing was saying no, I always visualize in my mind a tunnel of perception contracting to a smaller area, but never realized that what this actually was is saying no, to others and internal processes outside the intended area! Makes me want to go into a “no” philosophy rabbit hole n really get things figured out so I can accomplish something.

Steve Jobs was one of the best CEO’s in the world. Just like Hiroshi Yamauchi-san (former and late President of Nintendo Co. Ltd.) They where both visionaries whom looked far ahead in the tech industry. Yamauchi-san was also known as the Nostradamus of the video game industry. R.I.P. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Yamauchi-san. I still miss you 😢

Well said in a time where focus is becoming increasingly sparse

Back when Apple felt like it was led by humans who would engage in actual open discourse with fans.

May these words help me in my music career! Thanks Steve, better late than never.

Love listening Steve Jobs talking, you always learn something

After being in tech for a decade... Holy shit! That rings so true. The issue, if not always, but mostly about sh*tty management. Management that focuses too much on optics, and client that doesn't know what they want, and the management that's chasing after those distracting optics. Infuriating.

Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every single day for decades. This man clearly knew what truly matters in life. I'll take his advice without wavering.

This is basically the self-help book First things First by Stephen R Covey

What I find great about this, is how Steve starts on an abstract level, which explains the general approach. But then he qualifies it, too. So you know it’s not just talk.

The type of videos I want RU-vid to recommend to me

Ironically, as a language teacher, this is my message to my students. Learning a language is not shot intelligence, it’s about attention and focus and reps. I say ironically because it’s the Apple products that are creating the environment of severe distraction within the classroom.

I don't think I have any words to describe how this man has impacted thousands of lives

He touched on it so brilliantly. It is counterintuitive to say no to people, they even made a comedy with Jim Carrey called Yes Man that is worth a watch, but for the first time in my life after almost dying from covid I have had to tell a lot of people no and it has been the only way to save my sanity. It gets easier and easier. Always reserve energy for what is important.

The words ' Focusing is saying no' have been leading my life forward!!!

Amazing... This is the content youtube should recommend me always.

He mentioned how there was a lack of management and I feel like this applies to every job really. Like working at a hospital, crazy how so many people are just lacking the entire day. People want “great service” but when they are the ones giving the service they do a half ass shitty job. I do cleaning at hospital and there’s a lot of lazy people that don’t want to clean 🧼 the way is supposed to be. But they hate when themselves or a family member is in a hospital room and it’s not sanitize properly, I sometimes look at this people and want to tell them straight 🆙 it’s not just engineers or high end jobs that this applies to. This applies to all jobs across the board. We need management that’s going to put their foot down on these lazy as staff and even the management themselves are just as crappy as the staff that gets hired. So sick of this BS! People are just disgusting all across the board for behaving like this! Stop lacking and do things properly!!

Such a legend wish he was still here doing what he does best

Very interesting, some of my peers do tend to think that they should be saying saying yes to everything to not miss an opportunity, I tend to trust myself to recognise an opportunity when it comes along and inevitably waste a whole lot less time getting involved in obviously fruitless projects.

The period-specific picture quality and buffering put this video over the top. I feel like I'm back in college watching this.

Thanks RU-vid for golden nuggets like this

*Despite the economic crisis, this is still a good time to invest in crypto and gold*

*I'm so happy trading with Mrs Mary she's different from others. I always made withdrawal of $15,000 every week of trade, God bless you.*

One should never underestimate someone with Steve Jobs' track record in producing great products, however, given so many things that are messed up in our world today, I wonder if there are better ways to scale up innovation and production and perhaps ways to tackle a larger amount of our unsolved problems using our limited resources. From the bottom of my heart, RIP Steve Jobs. 💙❤️

Steve Jobs is my inspiration!! ❤🎉

Inspirational gem and relevant to my work situation and my own personal goals too. great upload!

Hate or LOve - Stevee made some sense out of what he talked and walked..

Steve jobs... what a legend

We want to keep our options open but the chip has to land somewhere. I was really challenged by this message. Its so tough to let go and say no!

Steve jobs was one of the best speakers I have ever heard of ❤

My word for the new year is FOCUS

The Rockstar Genius Inventor of the modern era!! You have left us Hungry and Foolish Steve :)

This applies to my University management. They want to maximise profits while maintaining rankings and teaching excellence. As staff, we are overworked, overwhelmed. And we find it hard to argue with management when they say they want to strive towards excellence in all areas. But this is the crux of the matter. They lack focus. Management lacks focus, courage and vision to say no. They say yes to everything and in the process, destroy staff welfare for unattainable gains. The plan looks good on paper, but the practice kills.

Seeing this and knowing that this was 1997, then I immedietly search first iphone introduction that was 2007. Man, for 10 years, he was aging so fast.

Took balls to engage that many engineers who were pelting him with pertinent industry questions. His responses indicated he knew very well the impact his decisions have made.

Amazing clarity in thoughts, this guy is built different

I think that focusing is hard because our brain associate focus with the feeling of fear.

I know project manager that was talking about fast track project in the start up fase. But as the project moved foreward they started focusing on finding shortcuts. The loost the Marco focus and starting to find quick fixes. The project failed miserably. The short cuts you will find after the project is over. When you evaluate what did we do wrong what could we do better next time.

Steve Jobs on staying focused by saying NO. And NO means NO!

this is insane ill be like this guy once day, a true visionary

Whoa i just realized what makes me procrastinate all day is bcs tes yes culture, gonna apply this and i can got how optimistic and great person he is

->CD Projekt adding Keanu Reeves in the middle of developing the game Cyberpunk 2077, should've said no even if the idea was enticing.

He is describing specialization, not concentration.

I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs was a big fan of Peter F. Drucker.

Thanks for sharing 😮

Love each word from that guy .. man i wish he could be back

Actually, Microsoft is moving over to Apple in a different way - by closing up platforms, by limiting functionality in an attempt to make things work better. Problem is, that has worked for Apple on the iPhone and the iPad, only because of the fact that they had a bigger market share in the first place, which was caused by the Apple fanboys. Microsoft has fans, but not the same kind of them that Apple has, which will stay faithful no matter what.

No.

his pants thooo so fiya

Within 5 years of this speech they were back on the right path. Focus!

We took this guy for granted. Even though the smartphone kind of destroyed society, still a very innovative thinker Steve was

Lol rare vid

Brilliant!

Here we are and Apple seems to have forgotten his point in this clip already. There’s elegance in simplicity. That elegance translates to intuitive user friendliness and devices that just work. Sometimes more is just more, not necessarily better.

My building my first software, this is a goldmine.

simply amazing.

I got a job recently and on my first day before work. I woke up by the alarm and said ''No.'' My boss called me and asked: ''Where I am and am I coming to work?'' I said: ''No.'' And he asked ''Why?'' I said: ''On the job interview I promised to focus 100% and focus is about saying no.'' Anyway, long story short; I got fired.

I want this type of videos from RU-vid

Another comment to help RU-vid algo show me more of these vids 🤝

GREAT VIDEO! His allusion to other companies being on bs while his suffered for a while then rose...is a GREAT LIFE LESSON. you cannot take on the suffering of others or feel for them, don't be sufferers be winners. Arrogance is the only thing they can say for embodying confidence over time.

Steve Jobs was ahead of his time 🙏🏾

Inspirational gem of all time

Steve Jobs was definitely the right man in the right position.

Same love this hopefully RU-vid shows me more

Its 7th march 2023 when i get this in my recommendation.

I needed this.

Thanks for uploading this

Pearl of wisdom right here

It's great to hear from legends...

Genius. People need to learn to say no.

The thing that he had which todays entrepreneurs don’t is admitting when he was wrong and being so honest, its very refreshing. Now a lot of people create rubbish and the rich people just buy it anyway. Now the wealthy people will just buy any crap, list Tesla, I know someone who abandoned their Tesla on the side of a road and bought a new car because he couldn’t get the battery replaced and nobody at Tesla was available to talk. 😂