How Steve Jobs Woulda Prepped for his TEDx

Steve Jobs’ childhood story about his rock tumbler resonates with me, in the context of a top-tier TED Talks. 

He once shared: 

“When I was a young kid, there was a widowed man that lived up the street. He was in his 80s. He was a little scary looking.

I got to know him a little bit — I think he might have paid me to cut his mow his lawn or something. 

One day he said, ‘Come on into my garage, I want to show you something.’ And he pulled out this dusty old rock tumbler. It was a motor and a coffee can and a little band between them. 

He said, “Come with me out back” and we got some rocks — some regular old ugly rocks. We put them in the can with a little bit of liquid and a little bit of grit powder. We closed the can up. 

Then he turned this motor on and he said, ‘Come back tomorrow.’ 

This can was making a racket as the stones went around. 

I came back the next day. We opened the can and we took out these amazingly beautiful polished rocks — the same common stones that had gone in. 

You see, through rubbing against each other — creating a little bit of friction, creating a little bit of noise, — out had come out these beautiful polished rocks. 

That's always been in my mind.

My metaphor for a team working really hard on something they're passionate about is that it's through a group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other — having arguments; having fights sometimes; making some noise; and working together — that they polish each other. 

They polish the ideas. 

What comes out are these really beautiful stones.”

Right on, Steve! 

Good ideas (and even GREAT ideas, much less TED-worthy ideas) require iterative efforts — work, Work, WORK. 

I’ve linked Steve’s  “rock tumbler” interview clip below, along with my process for finding and refining a TED-worthy idea: The BIG IDEA Mill™

The result will bring gemstone sparkles to your center stage results!

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#TheTEDTalkWhisperer

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