On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Steve Jobs asked Sony’s chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company’s factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signatures styles, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.

 

Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would be great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”

But that didn’t spell the end of Steve Jobs’ obsession about “uniforms”. He quickly became friends with Miyake and since he couldn’t convinced his employees about the company uniforms idea, Jobs thought of having a uniform for himself anyway. For the reasons of daily convenience and ability to convey a signature style, Steve Jobs asked Issey to make him some of his black turtlenecks. Issey Miyake ended making a hundred for Jobs, which the latter joked could last for the rest of his life.

 

Needless to say, Steve Jobs’s black turtlenecks helped make him the world’s most recognizable CEO, never mind he’s no longer with us today. Actually, if his employees had accepted the nylon jacket he proposed as a corporate uniform, Steve Jobs wouldn’t have worn his signature-to-be-turtlenecks. Talk about fate. But to have China Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun copying Steve Job’s turtlenecks for no other reason but purely to “copy”, it’s laughable.

Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg conducted his first public Q&A on Facebook Thursday afternoon. As expected, tons of questions started pouring in as soon as the event kicks off. He answered a lot of questions, but the one that got the most interest was – “Why do you wear the same T-shirt every day?”. In case you haven’t noticed yet, despite net worth of US$33 billion, Zuckerberg wears the same gray T-shirt at most public events.

 

He replied that he wore the same type of shirt daily so that he did not have to waste psychological energy on deciding what to wear; he’d rather remain focused on connecting people. Well, this is not the first time the young billionaire admitted he does wear the same type of shirt every day. Two years ago in 2012, he revealed during an interview that he actually owns “about 20” of the gray, scoop neck shirts that he’s famous for.

To some people, it makes perfect sense when Zuckerberg clarifies that small decisions like choosing what to wear or what to eat for breakfast could be tiring and energy consuming hence he wanted to make as few decisions as possible about anything except building better Facebook community. But to others, if he can’t even care to spare some time thinking about different shirts to wear, he has a bigger issue somewhere.

But hey, if Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Albert Einstein or even Barack Obama cared little for fashion, who are we to criticise and say they’re wrong for wearing the same boring set of shirts every single day, right? Okay, perhaps putting lame duck Obama on the same list is not a good idea after all. Still, it’s a bit sad that you can’t enjoy decorating your own self despite having billions of dollars.

Perhaps that’s exactly why ordinary people are not as successful as these rich personalities. So, if you’re still not rich and successful, take a look in your closet. Think like the successful people. Go ahead and buy 20 shirts of the same colour and design. Just make sure you change and wash them every day, and not wearing the “same” piece – over and over again (*grin*).

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Security Tips From Edward Snowden – Get Rid Of Facebook, Google & Dropbox
• One More (Secret) Thing … Apple iOS 8 Allows Wireless Charging Using MicroWave
• Steve Jobs’ Resignation Letters, In 1985 and 2011, Are Some Of The Best Ever
• Here’s How Xiaomi Secretly Steal Your Data For Chinese Govt, And How You Can Block It
• Tributes To Steve Jobs, Record Tweets & Cool Cartoons
• Steve Jobs, 56, Edison of 21st Century, Has Died

Tweet

November 7th, 2014 by financetwitter

If you enjoyed this post, what shall you do next? Consider: