Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once shared how his father played an intrinsic role in his success. Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson reminisced the time when the tech boss’ father Paul taught him how to build a fence around their home in California. This taught him how to be detail-oriented which helped him at Apple, Walter Isaacson said.
Paul told Steve Jobs, “You’ve got to make the back of the fence, that nobody will see, just as good looking as the front of the fence,” Walter Isaacson recounted, adding, “Even though nobody will see it, you will know, and that will show that you’re dedicated to making something perfect.”
Steve Jobs told Walter Isaacson about his father, “He loved doing things right.”
How Steve Jobs’ dad’s advice helped him at Apple
Walter Isaacson said that Steve Jobs made sure everything at Apple was of the highest quality so much so that he insisted that the insides of microchips looked beautiful and every screw “had expensive plating.”
Steve Jobs himself once said talking about what he learnt from his father, “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall.”
What Mark Cuban said on his father
Even Mark Cuban reflected on the contribution of his father in his success, saying, “This time wasn’t spent to learn about what my dad did, but to learn that his job didn’t have a future. His time was never his own … he wanted me to create my own path.”