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The Time Steve Jobs Called Jony Ive Vain — And Why Ive Knew He Was Right

By Steve Jobs · Leadership · 1 min read

Jony Ive asked Jobs to soften his critique of the team's work. Jobs said: No Jony, you're just really vain. You just want people to like you. I thought you held the work up as the most important — not how you're perceived. Ive was furious. But he knew Jobs was right.

Key Points

Steve Jobs was the most remarkably focused person Ive ever met — focus is a every-minute discipline
Focus means saying no to something you think is phenomenal — not saying no to things you weren't interested in anyway
Jobs called Ive 'vain' for caring more about how the team perceived him than the quality of the work

No Jony, you're just really vain. You just want people to like you. I thought you held the work up as the most important — not how you believed you were perceived by other people.

Focus Is Every Minute

Ive: This sounds really simplistic, but it still shocks me how few people actually practice this — the issue of focus. Steve was the most remarkably focused person I've ever met in my life.

The thing with focus is — it's not this thing you aspire to, or you decide on Monday 'I'm going to be focused.' It is every minute: why are we talking about this? This is what we're working on. You can achieve so much when you truly focus.

Steve was the most remarkably focused person I've ever met. Focus isn't something you decide on Monday. It's every minute.

How Many Things Have You Said No To?

Ive: One of the things Steve would say — because I think he was concerned that I wasn't focused — he would say: how many things have you said no to?

I would have these sacrificial things, because I wanted to be very honest about it. I'd say — I said no to this and no to that. But he knew I wasn't vaguely interested in doing those things anyway. There was no real sacrifice.

What focus means is saying no to something that with every bone in your body you think is a phenomenal idea — and you wake up thinking about it — but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else.

Focus means saying no to something you think is phenomenal. Not things you weren't interested in anyway.

No Jony, You're Just Really Vain

Ive: I remember having a conversation with him and asking why it could have been perceived that in his critique of a piece of work, he was a little harsh. We'd put our heart and soul into this. I was saying — could we not be a little bit more… you know?

He said: why? I said: because I care about the team. And he said this brutally, brilliantly insightful thing. He said: No Jony, you're just really vain. You just want people to like you.

He said: I'm surprised at you, because I thought you really held the work up as the most important — not how you believed you were perceived by other people. I was terribly cross. Because I knew he was right.

No Jony, you're just really vain. You just want people to like you. I thought you held the work up as the most important.