Steve Jobs' "Reality Distortion Field"

Steve Jobs did not have a "Reality Distortion Field," he had a "Distraction Eliminator Field."

Much has been written about Jobs creating what has been referred to as a Reality Distortion Field (RDF) that caused him to not only be incredibly convincing to others about whatever he wanted them to think but also to himself.  It was that RDF that enabled him to see exquisitely clearly something the world needed and wanted that they didn't know they needed and wanted (see Grokking Steve Jobs- Build an "Insanely Great" Business).

After writing a recent blog entitled: How to Deal with Distractions - Concentration Interruptus and "Pseudo ADD" and explaining how my problem of distractibility was not due to my thinking being interrupted by an ADD brain, but by people interrupting me and my difficulty saying, "No," or even, "Please don't interrupt me, I'm busy."  That came from dealing with many people in my life from childhood on who if I didn't drop whatever was on my mind and give them my completely focused, undivided attention they would become "huffy" or much worse.  And their copping such a negative attitude was so intrusive to me, that instead of remaining focused on what I was doing I dropped it and completely focused on them.

That may be one of the reasons I became a psychotherapist, because when I completely focused on my patients -- and I did that by dropping any agenda I had and solely dedicated myself to getting them better for an hour -- they did over time get better.

However recently I have been visioning some paradigm and game changing products and services including ironically a mobile app that almost overnight creates a positive mindset in organizations.  It is as clear to me as Jobs' vision of a reliable, uncomplicated and beautiful computer (and subsequent line of products) was to him.

I hope I don't need to become an a-hole like Jobs to keep people from distracting me from executing that vision, but every day as the vision and the steps to it become clearer, I find myself becoming more impatient with people and also why I need to go to my office where there is no one else there but me and the piles of crap I have accumulated for twenty years.

Interestingly, I think I have accumulated those piles because they are composed of books, videos, files, technology and other things I started and never got to finish, because I would be interrupted by seeing patients in my psychiatry and psychotherapy practice, taking calls from and returning calls to patients, their families and pharmacies. The reason I took and returned calls from patients and their families is that for many years I had a practice that focused on highly self-destructive and suicidal patients.

However since I have closed my practice and transitioned to building a company, I am much less concerned about saying, "No," or keeping things on track because I don't have the worry about someone jumping off a building if I do.