At home, we used to have a bookcase full of videocassettes, a little over sixty in total. I’d watch them over and over again, until I knew every line by heart. One of my favourites was The Goonies, a film about a group of kids who go on a treasure hunt. To be quite honest, as a kid I never quite got the reason why they went on a treasure hunt. I assumed they just wanted the gold for themselves.
Years later, I watched the film again and suddenly it all made sense. At one point in the film, we see the two trenchcoats walking up to the kids, giving them a letter meant for their parents. At that point, the word ‘foreclosure’ comes up. I didn’t know what that meant at age seven, so I simply ignored it. It’s why I missed the whole motivation behind the treasure hunt: they wanted their parents to pay off the foreclosure, so they could keep living in the same place, with their friends.
In other words, I lacked the required knowledge, and it caused me to miss out on the bigger meaning behind this film. At first I thought this was a simply adventure flick, but really, these were a group of friends looking out for each other. They were a team. That’s how it goes. Lacking proper context is like missing a puzzle piece, causing you to miss out on the bigger picture.
Let’s look at how this can play out in real life, when you lack context. So recently, I read this article on Steve Jobs. It promised to share insights, to help you improve your life. Guess what it was about? You got it, focus. Sure, Jobs believed in the importance of focus. You might have heard his famous quote, “Focusing is about saying no.” The article went on to say that you had to choose what’s most important to you and focus on that.
Seems like a great article at first sight. But let’s go a little deeper. In what context did he make those remarks? Was it meant as general life advice, to be followed slavishly at all times? Probably not. And let’s look at Job’s own life. Read his biography and you’ll find he was a man of many interests, not afraid of exploring many new things. This man was interested in design, marketing, technology and so on. As CEO, he didn’t just focus on one thing. He went around and checked up with each department, from arguing about the phone’s design, to talking about Apple’s latest advertising campaign.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. But I am saying these type of articles misrepresent reality and it’s easy to miss, if you lack proper knowledge. And if you were to follow the article’s advice to the letter, you’d miss out on much of what made Steve Jobs such a capable CEO. Because as much as he talked about focus, you shouldn’t be so quick to overlook his breadth of knowledge, giving him a big picture view on things, which meant he understood how everything fit together.
Personally, I believe in collecting ideas from various places, followed by some serious thought whether it makes sense or not for whatever you’re involved in. That’s how you give yourself the proper context, to make sure you don’t miss anything, or that you don’t get mislead by superficial articles. Food for thought.
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet