Scale the Stakes

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One day Steve Jobs began complaining that the Macintosh took 10 seconds too long to boot up. Larry Kenyon began to explain why, but Jobs cut him off. He asked if he could do it if someone’s life was at stake. Giving over to the whiteboard he started writing 5 million down. If there were 5 million people using the Mac, and everyday it lost them 10 extra seconds, that collectively added up to 300 million hours per year. All the time would be wasted. Jobs continued on explaining 300 million hours would save at least 100 lifetimes per year. A few weeks later Kenyon came back and it booted up 28 seconds faster. Sometimes individual contributors lose sight of the bigger picture and it can be used to reignite motivation in them when to push what they thought was possible.