by Sunil Bali, 30-06-13

Listed under Achievements on his CV, Tony Fadell includes the fact that he was responsible for designing the iPod and iPhone.

As he says, "The hardware was hard and getting the software right was anything but soft. But once we had done thousands of hours of design and created thousands of prototypes, the final design for the iPod and iPhone came quite easily."

We’re taught to do things the right way. But if you want to create something that other people haven’t, you need to do something that other people haven’t done and do things the “wrong” way.

Doubts and dead ends loom large on the un-trodden path, but they magically disappear if you keep on going.

Just like James Dyson, who made 5,127 prototypes of the vacuum cleaner before he got it right, Fadell considers himself to be more of a re-designer than a designer.

And like many famous creators Fadell cites the supremacy of the work ethic over inspiration, saying "I find that regular work produces regular inspiration. If we had waited for inspiration to strike, you would still be waiting for the iPod."

Humour

Found on Twitter:

  1. I play the triangle in a reggae band. I stand at the back and ting.
  2. I’ve been told that I’m not ambitious enough. My boss said if there was an Olympic sport for being lazy, the bronze medal would be mine.
  3. I wish who knew who took the jack from under my car. The suspension is killing me.
  4. Apparently you can only say, "Look at you. You’ve got so big," to children. Old girlfriends tend to get offended.
  5. It’s proving very difficult to find a shop selling "Left Guard" for my other armpit.
  6. I can’t help being lazy. It walks in the family.
  7. Lord help me to be the person my dog thinks I am.

 

Sunil

www.sunilbali.com