Most people saw the iPad as a revolutionary, unexpected device. Some people thought it would never sell, or that it was a useless, stupid device.
But, journalists and people on tech blogs and forums had been clamoring for Apple to sell a tablet for years. Every time Apple held an event, they waited breathlessly, hoping this would be the one where the fabled tablet was announced. For literally three or four years, those people were disappointed.
Jobs obviously saw the market potential. He undoubtedly heard the crowd of Apple fans yearning for a tablet. But he said no. Why? Probably be cause he knew the technology wasn’t there yet. He said no because Apple’s core ideal is to make fantastic consumer products. People didn’t just want a computer in the form of a tablet. The Newton showed that pretty clearly. They wanted Apple to breathe its magic on something to make it a great experience.
Right now, I’ve got a ton of things I want to accomplish. Each one of these things, by itself, is doable in the amount of time I have to dedicate to a project. But the list has grown to about 20 now. This gets to be debilitating. Not only is it impossible to get any meaningful work done if you’re thinking about 20 different things at once, it’s impossible to start.
The solution is to say no. Make a list of everything you want to accomplish, put them in order of importance, or feasibility, or likelihood of success, and then say no to everything but number one. Once you accomplish number one, you can move on to number two. There’ll be time for 2-20 later.
.