The 2-word phrase Steve Jobs used to inspire his team to make the world's most iconic products

Steve Jobs was known for many things, not the least of which was his ability to inspire those around him to do great things. That's true for many leaders, but Jobs had a unique idea of ​​what something "should" be, and he expected everyone around him to live up to that standard.

In many ways, this made him incredibly difficult to work with. There are many stories of his outbursts and nurturing personality. At the same time, there is no doubt that he was able to inspire people to create some of the world's most iconic products.

I recently rewatched an interview with Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple, on a 60 Minutes episode in 2015. Charlie Rose, the host, asked Cook to explain why he thought that Jobs was a singular figure in the tech industry. Cook's response was that Jobs was someone "who had this incredible ability to see around the corner. Who had this relentless driving force for perfection."

“Good is not good enough,” Cook continued. "It must be awesome. Like Steve used to say 'unbelievably awesome'.

These two words are interesting. I don't know how you decide if something is incredibly awesome, at least not objectively. I'm not sure that's the goal. Most of the time, the only standard that mattered was whether Jobs thought something was good enough.

Except Jobs always based this not just on personal taste, but also on the fact that he felt like it was something he would be proud to share with the world. He wanted people who experimented with a Mac or iPhone to be thrilled with not only how it worked, but also how it felt.

There is a quote attributed to Jobs which I think explains what he means:

"When you're a carpenter making a nice chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even if it's facing the wall and no one will ever see it. You'll know it's is there, so you will use a nice piece of wood on the back"

If you're going to do something, the details matter. Doing something as good as the competition is not enough. Jobs thought Apple customers deserved better.

When Jobs returned to Apple, he had a series of iconic hits: the iMac. The iPod. The Iphone. The MacBook Air. Each of these products defined their respective categories. Each of them was so out of competition at the time that it would have been hard to imagine them. The experience was so much better. They were "incredibly awesome.

It's not just Apple, either. Jobs was CEO of Pixar, the company that completely redefined animated movies. At Pixar, the same principle applies. For example, in Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull, the former president of Pixar, explains that the goal has never been to simply do better.

“Making the process better, easier and cheaper is an important aspiration, something we are continually working on, but it is not the goal,” Catmull wrote. "Doing something big is the goal."

He didn't use the same phrase, but it's pretty clear that Pixar mirrors Jobs' standard that once you've created the best product you thought possible, there was still room for it. make it even better. Pixar movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, Monsters, Inc, weren't just commercial successes, but incredible stories that captured the imagination and resonated with their audiences. They were incredibly awesome.

The insanely high level of Jobs is something you put more effort into because you knew what you were getting was much better than just settling for something really good. The goal was to do something better than you...