The Reality Distortion Field as Leadership Tool

"Jobs’ terminology may have been unique, but all the players exhibited a reality distortion field. They changed reality because they thought they could. Not many people think this, and therefore not many people do it. Or to quote the Apple ‘Think Different’ commercial of 1997, ‘The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.’ If we want unreasonable success, we must first believe we can change the world. Really believe we have our own personal reality distortion field. It won’t always work, but on important occasions it can change reality, if you believe. After all, what is extraordinary achievement but bending existing reality to your vision and your will, by persuading yourself and your key allies that it is possible? Yet the very phrase, ‘reality distortion field’, as in ‘I have a reality distortion field’, or ‘Steve has a reality distortion field’, when spoken and recognised as a real force, can have the power of a magic incantation."

"This was where Jobs’ reality distortion field came in. He told Larry Kenyon, an engineer working on the Macintosh prototype, that it was taking too long to start. Kenyon tried to explain to Jobs why it couldn’t boot quicker, but Steve was having none of it. ‘If it could save a person’s life,’ he interrupted, ‘would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?’ Jobs then multiplied ten seconds by the five million users of the Mac to show that it would save 300 million hours, which equalled 100 lifetimes saved a year. Kenyon was impressed, and came back a few weeks later, having found a way to save twenty-eight seconds. As a colleague said, ‘Steve had a way of motivating by looking at the bigger picture.’3 If something was defined as vital, it therefore became possible. Jobs didn’t have to know how to do it, just tell his people what was needed and that they could do it. They believed him, and they did it."

"Jobs was in New York for the press previews, and on a Sunday conference call the engineers back at head office gathered around the phone to break the bad news to him. The shipping could go ahead, the manager explained, but with ‘demo’ software, to be replaced with the real code two weeks later. A long pause. The software wizards expected an explosion from Jobs. But he was calm. He told them how great they were, so they could get this done on time: ‘You guys have been working on this stuff for months now, another couple weeks isn’t going to make that much of a difference. You may as well get it over with. I’m going to ship the code a week from Monday, with your names on it.’4 The engineers did what they thought was impossible. At 8.30 that Monday morning, according to Isaacson, Jobs arrived at Apple to find Andy Hertzfeld ‘sprawled nearly comatose on the couch’ after three all-nighters. Jobs gave the okay to the software, the product shipped as planned, and Hertzfeld drove his blue Volkswagen Rabbit, with its licence plate MACWIZ, home to sleep.5 The reality distortion field had worked again."

"Step 1 – Project extreme optimism and determination to redirect reality to fit your philosophy and objectives. Do what others think is impossible, or which never occurs to them. Defeat the conventional view of what is realistic and unrealistic. Sharpen your willpower and convince yourself it could change reality. •  Step 2 – Brainwash brilliant followers or collaborators into believing they can attain the impossible – because you say so, and you have a track record of being right."