The Winning Habits of Steve Jobs

Dr. Robert Toguchi

• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781648953071
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Self Improvement

The Winning Habits of Steve Jobs provides a glimpse into the successful attributes of this remarkable icon of the technology industry. Often characterized as one of the founders of the personal computer revolution, Steve Jobs displayed distinct habits and behaviors of entrepreneurship that were the foundations of his success. Of note, the vast majority of books that describe Jobs's success emphasizes what he did in terms of dates, events, start-ups, and product launches.

Other books discuss lessons learned, but they rarely address the approach of how to apply these insights. This book is different. Rather than focusing on a chronology of biographical events, Winning Habits will delve into an exploration of the how behind Jobs's remarkable success. It provides the perspective that Steve designed his personal life to optimize many aspects of entrepreneurship by creating and sustaining successful habits that were aligned with his core values. These core habits supported his long-term goal of becoming the preeminent technology entrepreneur of his time.

Beyond the habits of Steve Jobs, this book also innovates by comparing these remarkable habits with those of entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison.

Chapter 1

Winning Habits

Habits are all around us. People routinely do things every day without even thinking about them. Whether starting a car, booting up a laptop, making a cup of coffee in the morning, parallel parking, or going through a daily exercise routine, the pattern of one’s behavior is generally firmly ingrained in the subconscious mind and done flawlessly without even thinking about them.

Researchers note that successful habits are the foundation for success at work. Those who establish successful habits are more likely to succeed on the job, on the project, in the boardroom, or on the athletic field. Time and time again, professional coaches have emphasized and explained that the critical key to success in any walk of life is establishing and maintaining successful performance habits.

Entire books have been written about how to form habits and how to break them. Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit (2012) explores the subject of why we do what we do and how entire businesses are now looking at the basics of habit formations to improve how they market products and sell them in the marketplace. Businesses such as Starbucks are discovering that successful employee habits help create opportunities and make the sales that are essential to the bottom line.

Steve Jobs created and tailored his habits to achieve his goals. He realized that habits were the venue to get after his goals. He recognized that habits can fundamentally change your life relatively quickly on a semipermanent basis; over time, they can literally change your life forever. With the right habits, a person can create and achieve personal success. Steve was able, over time, to create his own habits and recreate himself to achieve success. With the right habits for success, Steve Jobs’s potential became limitless.

What Is a Habit?

What exactly is a habit? A habit can be defined as “an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.”2 Another definition of habit can be “a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition of physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance.”3 As such, habits are behaviors that individuals acquire over time and generally occur during the course of one’s formative years of learning. Steve Jobs was no exception, and he developed these unique habits over a period of years.

Recent research has revealed that habits emerge because the human brain is constantly seeking ways to reduce effort.4 Without interference, the brain will attempt to make almost all routine actions a habit since it allows the brain to conserve energy and become more efficient. Research indicates that greater efficiency in brain activities has proven to reduce the size of the brain.5 Efficiency also allows the brain to focus on more important tasks that require concentration and power, such as learning new skills, navigating through difficulties, and executing projects with great complexity. Creating habits streamlines activities for the brain and allows the brain to focus on what is important.

Habits Are Valuable

To many competitors, habits are critical and essential for success. World-class performers such as Michael Phelps rely on habits to achieve greatness. As an Olympic athlete and world-record breaker, Michael Phelps developed a training regimen that maximized the development of habits so that his execution and reactions under stress would become instinctive.

Habits prepare entrepreneurs for the storm. Every business will face crises that require uncompromising faith and commitment. What prepares the entrepreneurs for the crises that come unexpectedly when everything seems to be going well? Habits provide entrepreneurs with resiliency, relevant steps, and best practices that steer the business in the midst of insurmountable odds. Resiliency can come in the form of financial reserves, reliable partners, network relationships, and uncommon investors who can intervene for the business in times of crisis. By being prepared, periods of crisis can be dealt with in a much calmer fashion since strategic hedges and practical steps to address the crisis have been thought about in advance. In short, appropriate habits help entrepreneurs weather the storms of life.

Habits also prepare entrepreneurs for the doldrums. Habits can serve to carry a leader through challenging times where nothing seems to be improving. Businesses can hit plateaus when profits are flat or in steady decline. Habits serve as the necessary bridge to better times since they provide leadership behaviors that are tried and true. When an entrepreneur feels that he or she is in decline, each can rely on the steadfastness of proven habits and proven values to bring the business or the enterprise back on track. Winning habits pave the way for individuals to restore entrepreneurial success through proven best practices to reestablish the foundation and right the ship.

Habits prepare entrepreneurs for the next level of excellence. Excellence in business requires time to invest in researching the product, knowing the business climate, finding the right partners, supervising the workforce, and making the right investments. Time is indispensable. The beauty of successful habits is that they free the mind to focus on time investments that truly matter. Successful habits unclutter your business day by making routine the daily decisions that are essential for smooth and error-free operations. Supplier order decisions, payroll management, marketing practices, and production line execution can all be routinized through the acceptance of successful habits. Habits free up your operational time, which is essential to business success.

Steve Jobs knew that he had developed winning habits. He trusted his thought patterns, his instincts, and his habits to bring him through the difficult years after being fired from Apple. Winning habits gave him the critical first steps that enabled him to rapidly start new ventures in NeXT and Pixar. It also gave him the foundational values, skills, and attributes necessary to bring about the turnaround at Apple when the board of advisers brought him back as the interim CEO. In all of this, winning habits were the essential ingredients that made Jobs a successful CEO in the early twenty-first century. These habits made him a world-class leader for challenging times.

How Are Habits Formed?

Habits are formed through recognizable patterns. In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg notes that every habit begins with a pattern called a pattern loop. First, there is a trigger or a cue that signals your brain to transfer to automatic mode. This initiates a second step or a routine that is already wired in your brain. The third step is the reward. This reward is the necessary ingredient to reinforce the decision to execute the habit. It lets the brain know that there is a real benefit from doing the habit; this improved-behavior routine results in a feeling of satisfaction.

Habits are formed in the brain. A part of the brain called the basal ganglia is known to govern the practice of habits. About the size of a golf ball, the basal ganglion is located deep within the central section of the brain beneath the cerebral cortex. The basal ganglia is the unconscious control center for habits. It decides when to activate a habit, and it tells the brain when to turn on specific brain cells. Once activated, we automatically start a thought process, a specific routine behavior, or a decision-making process.

The neuron or brain cell is the core component of the brain. A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrochemical signaling.

The average brain has about one hundred trillion neurons. Each neuron can be connected to up to ten thousand other neurons, thereby passing signals to each other using as many as a quadrillion synapses or connections. It is through these synapses that habits are created and then reinforced through practice.

Habits Affect Brain Cells

It is apparent that habits are created over long periods of repetitive thinking and repetitious behavior. As a result, habits are also the outcome or by-product of certain brain cells repeatedly communicating with one another. The brain cell communications or electronic chatter is called a synapse. The more frequently that a brain cell converses with anot...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Conclusion
• Endnotes