Our Pick from the Time 100
It’s that point of the year again—Time Magazine just came out with their 100 Most Influential people list. Lots of greats on there, but here’s our favorite:
Why Fadell?
His recent $4.2 billion sale of Nest helps him stand out. (But if we were signaling out based solely on net worth, we’d be talking about the $100b Koch brothers right now.)
It also doesn’t hurt that in the past Fadell played a central role in the creation of the iPod & iPhone. (But lots of Time 100’s other picks have also developed exceptional technologies.)
No, we’re picking Fadell because we love the core principles lying behind his success. As his Time 100 profile notes, Fadell focuses on creating technology that:
- 1. Counts in everyday user life.
- 2. Is beautiful.
- 3. Features universally intuitive user experiences.
- 4. Rocks the business world.
Consider this a checklist for project success
As his profiler Yves Behar notes; most people never produce a single breakthrough that truly impacts the world. Fadell just entered his 40’s and he’s already knocked out three of them. Clearly he knows what matters in tech and what doesn’t.
I invite you to write these four principles on a post-it note and stick it at the top of your computer monitor. Make sure each of your systems and projects checks at least three of the four principles off.
(Oh, and apologies to Time 100 cover-woman Beyonce for not receiving our special distinction for 2014. Maybe next year.)
