How the Apple Store came to be as we know it

One morning, as the day neared for Steve Jobs to launch the first Apple Store, the executive leading Apple’s entry into retail, Ron Johnson, got into the car with Jobs to drive to an airport hangar where they were reviewing the store prototype.

Ron wasted no time in telling Steve that he had had a flash of insight about how they should completely redo the design of the store by creating separate sections for different uses, like for music, movies and more.

Steve roared. “Do you know how big a change that is? I don’t have time for this. I don’t want you to say a word to anyone about this. I don’t know what I think of this.” For the ten minutes of their drive, the two sat in silence. Ron felt uncomfortable sharing anything more with Steve that morning, even though, months ago, he had been lured away from the retail giant Target to help Apple break ground in retail. 

Upon arriving at the hangar, Steve spoke to the Apple group. “Well,” he said, “Ron thinks we’ve designed our stores all wrong.” 

He continued, “And he’s right. So I’m going to head out and you should just do what he’s going to tell you to do.”  

With that, Steve left the scene.

Later that day, Ron went to see Steve on the Apple campus. “You know,” Steve told him, “you reminded me of something I learned at Pixar. On almost every film they make, something turns out to be not quite right. And they have an amazing willingness to turn around and do it again, till they do get it right… Everything great I've done I've had to have the courage at some point in the process to start over and rethink it.” 

The Apple Store went on to become a huge success, becoming the fastest store in history to get to a billion dollars in revenue, and generating more revenue per square foot than any other brand in the U.S.

Some people understand Steve Jobs to have been a strongly opinionated and pushy founder, all about himself. That was more true of the younger Steve, whom we might call Steve 1.0. But then, life gave him some powerful knocks, like his firing from Apple. By the time he came back to reclaim the CEO role, Steve had learned some valuable lessons, as I share in my book, Inner Mastery, Outer Impact. He was more receptive to others’ ideas and to changing his own thinking. He was Steve 2.0.

Within you and me too, there is a 1.0 and a 2.0. 

How do you think those versions manifest in you? Take a moment to reflect. How often are you one versus the other?

I would offer that when you respond instinctively, distractedly or with irritation, you are far from your core — that’s your 1.0 version. When you are thoughtful, open and engaged, that’s your 2.0 version. 

We can get to our 2.0 version by diligently practicing the right attitudes and actions, like we discussed in my last newsletter on Principle 9. But today, I want to offer you a shortcut path to breakthrough performance. 

The power of the pause

A ten-minute pause was the true hero of the Steve-Ron story.  That quiet passage of time as they drove helped Steve to calm down, reconnect with his core, invoke the lessons he’d learned at Pixar, accept Ron’s fresh thinking and reset his behavior.

Before you walk into the moments that matter, take a pause. Assess your emotions, focus your mind, and approach that moment as though it’s laden with possibilities for inspiration, understanding and connection. 

In a research study I conducted with over a hundred executives from a range of organizations, their performance went up 150% after implementing this practice of the pause and prep, which I elaborate on in my Harvard Business Review article, “Leading in the Flow of Work.”

As Principle 4 tells us, life moments are also leadership moments. If there are times in your day outside work where you want to resolve a conflict, inspire a friend, offer a wedding toast or give feedback to a loved one, consider pausing and prepping in those situations, too.

High performance is a state, not a trait. 

You already have the neural pathways in your brain to perform most of the actions you need to achieve high performance. You just need to learn to use the right actions in the right moments. To activate the high-performance state, do a pause and prep before you walk into moments that matter. If you make a habit of doing so, this state will become a trait over time. 

We’re at a pivotal point in this journey through the 12 Principles for Success in Life and Leadership. We’re on the threshold of becoming extraordinary, and that’s where we’ll go in our next newsletter.