Product or Progress?
When Steve Jobs came up with the idea for the iPhone, was he looking for the next phone? The next minicomputer? The next big Apple product to sell?
Or was he trying to advance civilization? Was his fire stoked by trying to improve how we lived and worked? Or just profits and getting rich?
Was Jobs focused on the product or on progress?
When we head to the gym, the health food store, or, for that matter, to our therapists, nutritionists, or doctors, are we concerned with the products or services they offer?
Or is our sole focus on the progress required to reach where we want to go?
Sure, we want to feel better inside and out and be healthier mentally and physically.
But that is still about the progress to get there. Once we actually start that journey, we take joy in the actual process, that journey.
Imagine for a moment that you were running a marathon and didn’t know that the total distance was 26.1 miles.
How would you know how much to train for each week? How about what kind of rest or nutrition do you need leading up to the bid race day?
It would be impossible!
Instead, it’s about having a finish line, a horizon, a mountain top that you keep in your thoughts, but focusing on the little steps every day you need to get there. Whether or not you are ultimately successful matters far less than the progress you make toward your goal.
That is how you become the best version of yourself – fall in love with that journey and take joy not just in the mountaintop but in the next step.
As Jobs knew instinctually, it’s about progress – not product; forward motion, not the final result.
As we close out yet another year and start a new one with fresh hopes, please keep this in mind when you are setting your goals and ambitions for 2024.
I know you’ll be wildly successful at whatever you turn your mind to achieve, and I’d be honored to help and support you along the way.
-J.D.