The Desert of Arizona, 5:48 a.m.
Clear 57 Degrees
Yesterday I published the Monday Hotsheet, sent to subscribers of the Field Report each week with things I’ve discovered in my business building travels.
One of the items was a video of Steve Jobs speaking with designer Paul Rand. In 1986, he was hired by Jobs to design a brand identity for the company NeXT. His fee was $100,000 (that’s about $217K in today’s dollars) for the design and the 100 page brochure outlining the details of the brand.
Here’s how Jobs described Mr. Rand’s response when asked to come up with a few options for a logo:
“I asked him if he would come up with a few options, and he said, ‘No, I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me. You don’t have to use the solution. If you want options go talk to other people.’”
That’s not a vendor or an order taker speaking there, that’s an Incomparable Expert.
How does someone do this? How does someone communicate, in a sentence or two, the relationship between professional and client like this?
There’s no way for you to communicate that clearly unless that clarity first exists on the inside of YOU.
In other words, you can’t ACT like this until you believe this.
Are you here to lead your clients or are you here to be ordered around by them? WHICH role is in their best interest?
It starts on the inside. In your mind.
One of the reasons I write every day is so you can read every day. These ideas, these ways of thinking and being… they take time and repetition to sink in. One of the reasons I write the Field Report each month is so you can then get a deeper look into who these Incomparable Experts are and understand what makes them tick.
You notice their accomplishments, the way they think and act. In them you see parts of yourself, your best self. From their stories you get the motivation, inspiration, insight and direction to set out and do the work to make that “best self” the one that interacts with the world.
Paul Rand could have just as easily come up with a few options to show Steve Jobs. But if he had, he would have instantly communicated that he viewed himself as “just another designer” rather than the Incomparable Expert he was.
It starts with a decision about who you want to be.