“That’s been one of my mantras -- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
[BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998] quote by Steve Jobs
"Gentlemen, this is a football......" Coach Vince Lombardi
Steve Jobs helped to build a "simple" company that revolutionized technology and even the music industry, improving our lives. Vince Lombardi stressed the "simple" basics and his professional football team won 5 NFL Championships and the first two Super Bowls. Lombardi continues to inspire many a half century later.
"Back in the day" when an Apple was a key ingredient in baking a pie and I was certain that my new Keds tennis shoes would make me "run faster and jump higher" (long before any of us knew what a "Nike" was), Coach Lombardi admonished his players to perfect the simple basics, the fundamentals: hit, run, block and tackle. Nothing fancy, just executing simple plays with maximum effort. Opponents of Lombardi's Green Bay Packers may have correctly anticipated the next play that the Packers would run and yet they couldn't stop the play from succeeding. To Lombardi and his team, winning wasn't everything, it was the only thing.
Chris Brogan recently shared a "secret" on his blog: Complex is usually just a lot of simple things played out in a smart sequence. Are you able to learn from the apparent success of Steve Jobs, the winning record of Coach Lombardi and the secret revealed by Chris Brogan?
Are you executing the simple basics in your business? In some ways success in business, as well as in life, depends upon mastering the simple and consistently executing with maximum vigor. Sounds too simplistic? Maybe. But keep in mind that after companies spend $2Million to $3Million on a 30-second Super Bowl commercial, the winning team at the end of the game receives the Lombardi trophy. Go figure.
Steelers fans, in particular, will enjoy the conclusion of the video below.
Thanks for sharing 109 seconds of your day,
Smitty
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