We saw earlier how focus is a game of managing your resources, the mental bandwidth. This idea is valid beyond the individual level as well, and we can learn something from the story of Apple.

The conspiracy of how Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, was ousted from his own company is not news to anyone, but it holds a great lesson about the importance of managing our bandwidth wisely. After firing Jobs in 1985, Apple entered a period of decline. In the hope of making more money they kept introducing new products, but the earnings just kept going down. With time, it became clear that rehiring Jobs was their last resort. So, in 1997, Steve Jobs was brought back.

From our vantage point, we know that Jobs succeeded in saving Apple. In fact, he made it a star! But how did he do so? One of the biggest changes that Jobs made was cutting off the noise. When he returned to Apple, Jobs saw it as a company trying to do hundreds of things well, with multiple products in the market, but failing to be the market leader in any of them. To his experienced eyes, the goal was clear. Cancel random products! Jobs canceled most of Apple’s offerings, no matter how trendy, and asked everyone to focus on just a few things and do them exceptionally well.

This is the power of resource allocation. When you focus your energy on just a few things, you will be surprised at how well you can do them. But if you lack clarity of what should you focus on, everything will seem tempting, just like Apple during its crisis years. In its crisis years, Apple tried a range of products, from a personal digital assistant (PDA) to a TV and even a playing console! It’s unbelievable that decades later the same Apple is one of the most valuable brands today but makes only a handful of products.

This seems remarkably similar to a person trying their hands on multiple jobs or hobbies but failing everywhere. Often, the problem is not that the person is not skilled, rather anything worthwhile requires a lot of focus to be done well. In the end, Apple’s redemption lied in making its original products better, and the same is valid for a person as well.

Not that trying new things is bad, but you should not expect to learn much if you do not give them enough resources (like time and energy). So next time you feel that you cannot grow in your job, or get tempted to adopt a new trend or hobby, ask yourself, have I given my best to the existing one?

As Steve Jobs said:

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 I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.