As a Mac fan living in Palo Alto at the turn of the century, Steve Jobs was a particularly fascinating character. I read Walter Isaacson’s biography on release and anticipated Danny Boyle’s 2015 movie with relish. It didn’t disappoint. It put a spotlight on his charisma, enthusiasm, focus, vision….and the cost of it all – relationships at every level, personal and professional. (I found particularly poignant his choice not to have deep contact with his biological father, fuelled by paranoia).
His trajectory also reminded me what it takes to be successful at that level. Failure. Lots and lots of failure. Perhaps in smaller ways than some of the crash landings we read about in the popular press, but failure nevertheless. And the day after I saw the movie this lovely graphic came across my path, illustrating perfectly the illusion of success being about skill, ease and grace. Instead success comes from persistence, failure, sacrifice, disappointment, practice, dedication, determination and hard work. I understand the graphic is inspired by Matthew Syed’s book Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice (yet another for my reading list) so thanks go to the author and Sylvia Duckworth for the graphic.