"Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."
When I first read this, it hit me as completely right, but I wasn't sure why in the beginning. Then I realized it was the success thing. There's something about success that brings a weight upon someone, something that can lure us into doing things the same way over and over again.
It is in those times that creativity, wonder and finding answers can be brought to a low point.
I always have liked that movie called "Big," starring Tom Hanks, as he was brought back to being a young teen in a grown up body.
He would do all sorts of creative things that a kid that age would do, and he wowed the corporation he worked for, which thought of him as a genius.
The reason why was similar to what Jobs said about being a beginner again.
I think this is something that can be recreated in our professional lives by wondering around the company and engaging in things we don't know much about. This could be extended to our people in certain ways too.
It's the knowledge that we know nothing about something that frees us to try all sorts of things we wouldn't do if we are considered experts in it.
We don't play when we know too much, we maintain. There's a place for maintaining things, but to only maintain is to ensure there's no future.
Creativity comes from knowing too little, not knowing a lot. We occasionally need to enter into this type of mentality and activity to free ourselves from the rut we're in.
Others have said they fire themselves from the job, in the sense of taking themselves outside the business so they can then see objectively and creatively from without. When you're in the middle of the pracicals, it's almost impossible to see clearly and get a fresh view of things.
Those that find ways to be a continual beginner, and help their people do the same, will find themselves in a continual place of renewal, innovation and creativity, as success doesn't become the heavy weight it can sometimes be.
Jobs accidently discovered the secret to continual creativity, and it's still working him and Apple (AAPL) to this day.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
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