Why Apple ?

Notice the distinction in the language used. Designed by Apple in California. 90% of the people on earth dismiss deeper concepts in relation to everyday products. This is mostly because they tend to have jobs that are mostly process based. A lot of people also readily admit they aren't good at math and aren't creative. Makes you wonder, what are they good at anyway?
Carrying on, we'll find examples from other worlds and infinitely loop back to Cupertino.
Meet Bob Kramer

What makes him so special? Well, who do you know that has the ability to focus and pursue excellence on something most of us never think of? There is a deep level of zen about it. Here's a man whose focused efforts earns him the ability to create a business where you are put on a waiting list just to be able to purchase one of his hand made products. Why? Because he cares deeply about his product, and about how his customers would feel using them.
Where do we go from here? How about the most exquisite table you've ever seen?

Price tag? $150k. That's insane! Not really, if you appreciate the best in the field. David Fletcher is one of those people that has the same attention to detail as Jobs did. He also has a waiting list of his tables. On our journey thus far we've met some incredible people from very different walks of life. Let's meet another Master, Ray Kimble.

Kimber kables are pricey for sure, but I've been lucky enough to visit high end audio stores to audition various speakers. Almost all of them had Kimber Kables attached.
Ever stop to think about the quality of the noodles you eat? No? Well you might after witnessing a Soba master by the name of Tatsuru Rai work in silence. It is mesmerizing. He only feeds 12 at a time. You can see why.

Where to from here? Why not check out a furniture company that makes the best chairs in the world? Steelcase? Herman Miller? Nope, these guys are the ones who make chairs that happen to be used by Presidents (Clinton), professional sports teams, courts, various movies, and apparently a favourite of Jonny Ive himself. You can find them winning awards at the big events in Chicago every year. I'm of course referring to a Canadian company that is run by some smart Germans, Keilhauer. I was lucky enough to get the one below as a gift from a friend of mine. Best piece of furniture I own. What about tv shows? Are there any that meet this standard? I will say this one is more subjective but the results are undeniable. You just have to listen to Vince Gilligan talk about what makes Breaking Bad so awesome. Critics and fans agree. I happen to be both a critic and a fan of the series, which I will say is the best I've ever seen. The poem that's being read in the clip below is by Percy Shelley.

If we are going to talk film, we have to sit and consider the one and only, Christopher Nolan. The man re-booted the Batman franchise which was essentially a joke, batcards and glowing cars in all. Read this article and you'll see another common theme pop up. Obsession. https://youtu.be/GROmJWb-3wU Honorary mention? Absolutely, check out these boys from Japan. Nakaya. Are there more? You bet, but for this small trip around the world, we'll circle back to Apple. If you know of masters that make the very best products in a particular field, let me know about it in the comments below. Always happy to learn from them, and about them. The Master himself, in his words distilling what you should think about when you consider a product. https://youtu.be/eAo8gnUCWzE Of course that was telling. People always talk about Apple being doomed because Steve is gone. This is tone deaf on many fronts. The guy who spent time making sure the phone made the right clicking noise when you plugged in the headset, and called Google up to remind them that the colours for the logo was inaccurate, pulled off one more bit of magic. He let people forget that his greatest creation wasn't the iPhone, iPad, the Mac, Pixar, the Apple stores or the new campus. It was, and is Apple itself. His time at Apple was remarkable because he saw what happened when he left them during the 1990s. I promise you, the attention to detail, the meticulous care that went into every product is surpassed by that same blueprint he drew up on how to run a company. Just remember how easily he picked Tim Cook to take over and no one flinched. Well, maybe those people who want Apple's stock to go down because they were shorting it at the time. People who think things through understand that he would make sure his best work went into the machine that birthed all those products we know and love. Of course on the business side you'd be hard pressed to find someone smarter than Tim Cook. Apple's become a company where other successful CEO's run amazing companies in order to audition for management positions with Apple. On the product side, he left behind the person everyone simply knows as Jony. https://youtu.be/2ygl7xSFn2M

A.D