Steve Jobs is regarded by many as the greatest ceo of all time. By the time he died of cancer in October 2011, Apple was the most valuable corporation on Earth. His unique approach to business made the Apple brand stand out above its competition—and above every organization in any field. He reached the height of success in the physical realm. There is a reason why.
Biographer Walter Isaacson wrote: “One of Jobs’s great strengths was knowing how to focus.” Jobs repeatedly talked about focus, focus, focus. To give one example: At one point, Apple was trying to produce a huge number of gadgets. Jobs pared it down to just four: one desktop and one portable device each for both the consumer and the professional. This concentration of effort made all the difference for the company. “This ability to focus saved Apple,” Jobs said.
The word focus can refer to adjusting the lens of an eye or camera to produce a clear image. Figuratively it means concentrating, fixating intensely on one object. When something is in focus, it is clear and sharply defined. Out of focus means blurred and not sharply defined.
We must develop this ability. Focus is a dynamic power. It is a foundational principle of success.
But the big question you have to ask is: Where do you focus?
In order to truly benefit from this quality, you need the ultimate success focus.
Singleness of Vision
There is a crucial spiritual truth here. The focus that Steve Jobs was so masterful at is based on a biblical principle.
Jesus Christ said, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke 11:34-36).
If your eye is single and focused, that will fill your body with light! That focus—that single eye—brings light into any working situation or project. You will see everything so clearly, especially if you focus in the right place spiritually. This is the foundational pillar. If you learn how to focus—and the more important question, where to focus—it can save your job; it can save your corporation; it can change your life!
This same statement from Christ about singleness of vision appears in Matthew 6:22-23. Then notice what He said right after that: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (verse 24). You cannot serve God and money. You must focus on one or the other.
Clearly, God is concerned about how and where we focus. How can we focus to really be successful physically and spiritually?
It Takes Love
Steve Jobs gave a heavily quoted commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. Here is an excerpt:
“I was lucky—I found what I loved to do early in life. [Steve Wozniak] and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation—the Macintosh—a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him. So at 30, I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
“I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. … I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me: I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.”
Steve Jobs really loved what he did. This is an important point. If you are going to focus on something, you need to love it.
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick,” he continued. “Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love …. [T]he only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
The principle at work here is critical. But this is about more than just finding a good career or succeeding at making a great product. It is far more important when you look at spiritual success, which is a trillion times more important than what he was talking about!
God’s way of life has love right at the heart of it! He loves us—and proved that by sacrificing His Son for us (John 3:16). He commands us to love Him back with our whole heart (Matthew 22:37; 1 John 4:19). He condemns those of His people who “received not the love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Sadly, this is true of the vast majority of His people in this end time. They didn’t love God’s truth, and they lost their spiritual focus because of that. They are going to be great failures at best; and those who don’t repent of that are going to lose everything!
Having a love for something sharpens your focus. Combine focus with a deep love for the subject, and you can accomplish great things. Your heart has to be in it, or you’re going to lose your focus.
“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ” (Ephesians 6:5). In all you do—marriage, family, work, recreation—you must have “singleness of your heart.” You must put your heart into it and really focus if you’re going to succeed.
Focus on Perfection
Steve Jobs said that he wanted to “make a dent in the universe.” He had a great ambition. He often quoted Wayne Gretzky, who said, “You don’t skate where the puck is, you skate where it’s going to be.” He had vision, and he stayed focused on that.
Jobs studied the Mercedes car and recognized its spectacular design. He decided he wanted to bring the same elegance and excellence to the Macintosh computer.
Jobs focused so intensely on producing great products that many brilliant minds couldn’t handle working for him. Only those who shared his passion for perfection could rise to the challenge. Time magazine quoted Jobs on the creation of the iPhone, which debuted in stores in 2007:
“[T]here always seems to come a moment where it’s just not working, and it’s so easy to fool yourself—to convince yourself that it is when you know in your heart that it isn’t. Well, you know what? It’s been that way with [almost] every major project at Apple, too. … Take the iPhone. We had a different enclosure design for this iPhone until way too close to the introduction to ever change it. And I came in one Monday morning, I said, ‘I just don’t love this. I can’t convince myself to fall in love with this. And this is the most important product we’ve ever done.’ And we pushed the reset button. We went through all of the zillions of models we’d made and ideas we’d had. And we ended up creating what you see here as the iPhone, which is dramatically better. … [W]e had to go to the team and say, ‘All this work you’ve [done] for the last year, we’re going to have to throw it away and start over, and we’re going to have to work twice as hard now because we don’t have enough time.’ And you know what everybody said? ‘Sign us up.’”
Jobs scrapped the iPhone! By all accounts, it was a quality piece of technology, but it wasn’t perfect. If Jobs couldn’t fall in love with it, then no consumer would. So his team started over. History shows he made the right decision. Time named the iPhone, the Invention of the Year.
Without such intense focus on getting the product right and making it as perfect as possible, no executive would have even thought to make such a call.
We need to learn to be that way. We must learn to focus if we’re going to succeed! That is essential—it’s really the foundational pillar of success!
More Valuable Than Riches
Proper focus requires not only concentration on one clear goal, but also the right goal to pursue. There are a multitude of areas where we can direct our focus: Some areas are good; others are evil; and certain areas are far more important than others. Ultimately we all have to get a right focus spiritually.
Look again at Matthew 6, where Christ is expounding on the singleness of vision. Note the context and the wonderful overview it gives of what you need in order to really achieve the ultimate success and the ultimate focus in life.
Verses 19-21 say, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Where do you invest your heart? If it’s in something physical, something temporary, then ultimately it is of extremely limited value.
This is key to developing the ultimate success focus, which Christ explains in verse 22. Where must the focus be? Is your main focus on material riches on Earth? God wants to give you something far more valuable than that! In fact, if you really understand Hebrews 1 and 2, you realize that God wants to give us the universe! He is preparing a future for human beings that is so spectacular that nothing in this world compares to it! It is so easy to confine our view to this physical Earth and forget about the incredible reward God is offering.
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6:25). Life is so much more than just food and clothing, cars, computers, technology, beautiful buildings or whatever. All of that is trivial—it’s nothing—compared to what God wants to give you!
God offers the real abundant life! Christ is saying that what we have isn’t even really life! It’s just a little period of time on Earth, and then we die. Real life is forever and ever! God wants your life to go on and on—and never end! That is His goal for you!
Where is your focus? Where should it be in order to receive the ultimate success?
Where to Focus
Christ goes on to say that if He provides for the birds and the lilies, why wouldn’t He give us so much more? (Matthew 6:26-32). He tells us to take no thought—not to be worried so much about physical things. Real life goes far beyond this temporary existence.
Then comes this dynamic, amazing verse, where Christ tells us where our focus really needs to be: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (verse 33). God’s Kingdom should be your ultimate success focus! God says if you do that, He will make sure to provide the physical things you need. Those things will be added if you’ll just focus first on the Kingdom of God.
Very few people on Earth believe this or will even consider this, but it may be the most inspiring scripture in the Bible! These are Christ’s own words. Focus, focus, focus—but focus first on the Kingdom of God!
Matthew 4:4 tells us that we should live by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth. Every word! Do that and you will be focusing on and having the most happy, joyful, successful life a person can even imagine. You will be fulfilling your purpose—the very reason for your being here on Earth. And that is what we ought to be focusing on!