Leave Your Desk

Sometimes, the best way to move a project forward is to leave your desk and get out in the world, on the search for inspiration.

Steve Jobs famously (mis-)quoted Pablo Picasso, saying, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” Judging from the accusations of folks at Xerox PARC, he clearly subscribed to that philosophy — and so do I. Whatever you call it — theft or otherwise — the capacity to find inspiration in what others overlook is an ability worth cultivating.

My friend Lecrae says, "Inspiration is a discipline." I’ve noticed that for most business folks, inspiration isn’t even on the radar, let alone a routine.

We get a special glimpse at Jobs’ discipline through the following anecdotes from Water Isaacson's excellent biography, Steve Jobs:

"To make the Apple II successful required more than just Wozniak's awesome circuit design. It would need to be packaged into a fully integrated consumer product, and that was Jobs's role.

"He began by asking Ron Wayne to design a case. 'I assumed they had no money, so I did one that didn't require any tooling and could be fabricated in a standard metal shop,' he said. His design called for a plexiglass cover attached by metal straps and a rolltop door that slid down over the keyboard.

"Jobs didn't like it. He wanted a simple and elegant design, which he hoped would set Apple apart from the other machines, with their clunky gray metal cases. While haunting the appliance aisles at Macy's, he was struck by the Cuisinart food processors and decided that he wanted a sleek case made of light molded plastic."

Frustrated by what he considered to be an inadequate design, Jobs left his desk. He didn’t do it absent-mindedly, but deliberately, looking for something that would unlock the riddle. Like Lecrae, Steve Jobs treated seeking inspiration as a discipline worth cultivating.

Jobs did the same thing years later, with the Macintosh as well:

"One weekend Jobs went to Macy's in Palo Alto and again spent time studying appliances, especially the Cuisinart. He came bounding into the Mac office that Monday, asked the design team to go buy one, and made a raft of new suggestions based on its lines, curves, and bevels."

For different industries, the sources of inspiration may be different. Mileage may vary. But in every industry, being deliberate to seek inspiration rewards those willing to go on the hunt.

Related: Encourage Theft
Related: Inspiring Inspiration-Seeking
Related: The Discipline of Inspiration

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