972. You Never Have It All Figured Out- A Lesson From Steve Jobs

In this episode, I break down a powerful lesson from the Steve Jobs Archive about innovation, leadership, and why most people stall out in life: they stop taking risks. Jobs reminds us that you never truly “figure it out.” You’re always figuring it out — and the minute you stop innovating, you start eroding.

Whether you’ve experienced a major failure or you feel like you’re finally in the lead, the danger is the same: slipping into protection mode. Playing it safe. Cost-cutting your way through problems instead of innovating your way to better circumstances.

This episode explores:

• Why iteration through failure is the real path to growth
• How Apple lost a 10-year lead by stopping innovation
• Why “safe” decisions often become the riskiest
• The mindset shift required to stay competitive in life and business
• How to avoid stagnation and keep pushing your skills, ideas, and opportunities forward

If you’re a leader, creator, entrepreneur, or anyone trying to grow from where you are to where you want to be, this episode will help you stay hungry, stay curious, and keep innovating.

Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough.

Transcript

0:00

I read something I wanna share with you, and this is from Make Something Wonderful and it's by Steve Jobs, his wife. Published it, it's free. It's from the Steve Jobs archive. And let me read you what he wrote and then I'll riff on that like we always do. So this is what Jobs wrote. He said, one of the things I've always tried to coach myself on was not being afraid to fail, because when something doesn't work out. Most people's reaction is to protect themselves, not wanting to fall on their face again. And he said, that's a big mistake because you never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times in the process. And dude, I just had to stop the bus right then and there. I mean, that is the message because. If you fail before, even if it was a massive failure, dude, I've had some glorious failures, even if it was a massive failure. The one thing you have to understand is you can't be afraid to fail again, because the only way that you're going to innovate, the only way you're gonna work yourself into better circumstances is by iterating through failure. I mean, look at Jobs himself, dude. He was ousted from his own company. He started, I mean, that's about as big picture failure as you can get, but contrary, and this is what makes him a legend, contrary to human nature where most people would go protect themselves, it kind of play it safe. He didn't retreat into protection mode. He kept going. He kept trying. And he said, I even failed more after leaving Apple, not less. And human nature is to fail less is to protect yourself. I don't want that to happen again. Why not? You're not gonna do it. Like to Steve Jobs's point, you're not gonna do anything in a major way if you're afraid to fail. And that's the distinction to make. Failing, isn't final. Quitting is failing is iterative. It's a cycle. It's not who you are, it's just where you are. But see, in the process of iterating, this is how you sharpen your skillset. This is how you increase your independence. This is how you expand your freedom. This is how you improve your collaboration. This is important. This is how you stumble into new opportunities. I mean, think about this. You don't stumble on anything new if you're only staying inside the familiar, the innovation. Comes from stepping out there from iterating through failure again and again. But here's the flip side. Jobs said that when he left Apple, apple had a 10 year lead over Microsoft. That is an unheard of advantage in tech. And he said they ended up losing it. Why? Because Apple stopped innovating. he pointed out that the Mack was only 25% different than when he left, and he said, that's not enough. That's not a big enough lead. When you're spending millions of dollars in research and development, he said, that's not enough. That's not progress. That's erosion disguised as stability. Microsoft at that time didn't beat Apple because they were brilliant. Apple lost ground because they were standing still being 25% different from where you were before with the exchange of millions of dollars in research and development, and decades of creating that space that lead. It's not big enough. That's not a return at all. It's actually a slow death. And sadly, most people don't realize that. I, at the time, Compaq was the leader in the field and Job said compact only has to be 5% better than the competitors to win. Why? Because they were mainstream. They were safe. But Apple to get people to take the risk of buying outside of what everybody see, everybody buys what everybody else is buying. Everybody was buying a Compaq because that's what everybody was doing. So that was the safe bet. And he said like Apple, you're stepping outside of mainstream. And to get someone to take a risk and buy something outside of the mainstream, he said the reward has to be dramatically bigger than the risk. I mean, and when I was reading this, I immediately thought of the Purple Mattress. I mean, I remember when Purple, purple Mattress first came on the scene. Buying a mattress online was unheard of. But see, what they ended up doing is they reduced the risk by giving you a trial period. I think it was, sleep on it for a hundred nights. If you don't like it, send it back. I've yet to see anybody at the UPS store. Bringing their king size mattress inside the store and talking about, I wanna send this back. But see the fact that they said, look, I know this is different. I know you think you gotta go to a traditional furniture store. Don't do it. We're gonna send you the right mattress, and if you don't like it, you can send it back. No questions asked, bro. How bold was that? Jobs made the point that apple's problems could not be solved by cost cutting or battening down the hatches. He said it's not gonna happen. He said, the only cure is apple's gonna have to innovate their way out. That's not just a business principle, bro, that is a life principle. You don't protect your way out of a rut. You don't cost cut your way into growth, you innovate your way forward, and that requires iterating through failure again and again and again. So I wanna leave you with a couple of takeaways. Number one, if you failed before. Don't be afraid to fail again. I mean, it sounds so cliche to say, but it's, it's so true because failing is iterative. You learn, you adjust, you grow, you iterate through failing. If you're iterating, you're innovating. The second point I wanna make is if you're in the lead right now, if you're still listening, you may have turned this off, but if you happen to listen to this at the end, you think you got a commanding lead, bro, lemme tell you something. You never have it figured out. You're always figuring it out. Don't ever think that you got it figured out. Don't ever think that you have the magic code. The formula is always changing. You got the lead lead, but don't protect the lead. That is protection is gonna lead to erosion. Think about this. Risk is safe. Safe is risk. Think about this in any area of your life, I'm talking about calculated risk, not, I'm not talking about reckless risk, but when you take the risk, this is where you step outside of your assumptions, the safe zone. That's safe. The risk taking. The risk is actually safe because you're creating opportunities. You're learning new things, you're collaborating with new people, and you're not afraid to fail. You know you're gonna be all right. The riskiest thing you can do is play it safe thinking that you have this commanding lead that nobody's gonna catch up with you. Totally false. Totally false. You gotta have that positive paranoia. I love what Gary Vaynerchuk said. If you're not working every day to put yourself out of business, somebody else will. And that's true in life. That's true in business. It's true all the way across the board. You gotta innovate, but you also cannot be afraid to fail. That's the only way to innovation. Alright, question yourself. Hey, am I innovating? Am I trying new methods? Like, where in your life have you stopped innovating? Where have you let the protection mode creep in? And protection could be that you have it all figured out and you got this lead and you think you're, you can't be dethroned. Or protection could be like, man, I, I had a big failure. I don't, I don't want that pain again, i'd rather have the sting of failing. Embarrassment stings regret. That wastes tons, man. That'll sink you. So where have you let the protection mode just kind of creep in, bro, you may not even realize it until you're listening to this. And lastly, what's one area where you could try a new method, a new skill take on something that you've been kind of shying away from, you're hesitating about. A lot of these are just low consequences. I mean, they really are like, and your imagination, what you think is gonna happen don't happen at all. And, and you're like, bro, it wasn't so bad. And this is how you push these boundaries. It's these iterations being being open-minded to innovate, but there's a cost and it's the failing. You won't be disappointed. All right. Keep going at it. Thanks for sharing this episode. Remember, keep it simple, keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.