By Steve Jobs
Focus means saying 'no'
— Steve Jobs
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.
This was part of an answer to a question from the floor during the keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 1997.
He starts by describing the decision to kill OpenDoc and leaking to the San Jose Mercury newspaper but settles on a timeless piece of simple wisdom.
In the same Q&A there is a follow-up question, which prompts another memorable quote in response:
Anything vs Everything
How do we choose what to focus on, and have the conviction to say “no” to everything else?
Long Enough
How would treating time as a variable that we can influence change the way we behave and the choices we make?
How to Get Old
We only get to be each age once. How many will we waste trying to be something that we’re not?
Diworsification
A portfolio approach to early-stage venture investment doesn’t really help and probably hurts.