The image that opens this post is for the cabinet Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, who shared the image before returning to the offices of the company in Menlo Park, California, after two months of parental leave. But before leaving his office, the first challenge he faced was what to wear?
Of course in a sarcastic tone, Zuck showed its wide variety of shirts and sports jackets of the same color, because otherwise they have heard, Mark usually appears at all times wearing gray shirt and sometimes (when cold) dark blue jacket, but why? For the same reason that Steve Jobs and other important people have done before: Focus on the important things.
Simplifying decisions
While many of us took to choose clothes that will be used, there are people for whom this decision is less important, as it requires time and the need to invest energy in deciding what outfit used every day, the rest space making major decisions.
Surely this could be entertaining or even implausible, but there is psychological basis show that is true, as if Roy F. Baumeister, social psychologist who returned an idea of Freud and presented under the concept called ” decision fatigue:
“No we matter how rational we try to be, we cannot make decision after decision without paying a biological price for it. This is a different fatigue common, that is, we are not consciously aware that we are tired, but we low mental energy. So the more decisions we make during the day, whenever the next will be more difficult for our brain, which, if necessary, seek shortcuts”.
Hence characters have emerged, most CEOs or leaders, which take up this concept and adapt it to their daily lives, as in the position where they are, what they need is to invest time in trivial decisions, not value to the level of decisions to be taken every day, so just focus on what matters most, apart from the selection of clothes and even choose food.
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Some examples of people who have adopted this mindset…
Steve Jobs and his eternal black sweater
The case of recorded leader Apple is one of the most notorious, because for years he attended his famous keynotes dressed the same way, jeans and black turtleneck, where in recent years added a New Balance shoes to the equation. But how it came to this decision it is the most interesting part.
In the early 1980s, Jobs visited the Sony factory in Japan, where all workers wore exactly the same, so asked the CEO why, to which the manager replied that after several wars, most workers had to wear, so the company gave them clothes. Over time this became identity clothing for workers in Sony, which later resulted in uniform image that reinforced company from the competition.
Issey Miyake, a famous Japanese designer, was for many years in charge of uniforms Sony, and Jobs loved the idea, so he decided to hire to design uniform for employees of Apple, which was unsuccessful due to the refusal of the majority. But Jobs fell in love with a proposal that just consisted of black turtleneck sweater with jeans, so he asked Miyake a couple of sweaters for personal use, the surprise is that Jobs received more than a hundred as a token of appreciation from Miyake.
In subsequent years, Jobs told this story jokingly referring to Miyake gave him virtually clothes for the rest of his life, something that ultimately was true. Besides this, Jobs realized that dressing the same way every day, saved time and energy, also becoming a distinguishing mark of Apple leader.
Barack Obama and his gray or blue suits
The President of the United States is another case of characters who do not take time to choose clothes or food. During an interview granted to Vanity Fair, the president was referring to the theme of their costumes:
“You need to rid your life problems of everyday life to absorb a significant portion of the day many people. You’ll see it only took gray or blue suits. I’m trying to cut decisions. I do not want to make decisions about what I eat or wear because I many other decisions to make. You need to concentrate the energy you use to make decisions. You need to create one routine for yourself. You cannot be distracted throughout the day over trivial things.”
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Mark Zuckerberg and his gray shirts
And we saw at the beginning of this post with your closet, but Zuck is one recent example of this vision resume even mentioned that his inspiration comes from Steve Jobs and Barack Obama. Facebook CEO has confirmed on several occasions that has only about 20 gray shirts.
The first time was in 2011 during a session of questions and answers is organized at the offices of Facebook every Friday, where a fellow asked if he had more than one shirt, here Mark said yes, has more t-shirts, and always carries the same clothes because it is busy and that makes it one less thing to think about in the morning.
Later in 2012, during an interview with Today Show, the leading Facebook again confirmed the fact:
“I always get the same thing. I mean, it’s literal, if you could see my closet, maybe I have 20 gray T-shirts”.
Finally in 2014, during a session of questions and answers on Facebook, arose again the question of why wearing the same shirt every day, but here his response was more complete:
“The reason we only use gray shirts, and I want to clarify that I have several identical gray shirts, is that many research showing that making small decisions, including those related to what to wear in the morning, or what breakfast can be tiring. I am fortunate to be in the position where I can serve billions of people, and then I will not waste my attention on making frivolous decisions. It sounds a little silly, but it’s true before I did, do Steve Jobs and President Obama, who also personally choose what is going to be every day.”
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