Professionals can get bogged down by a continuous stream of emails, notifications, and meetings. But investing icon Kevin O’Leary says late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs taught him a simple formula to make the most of his days: focusing on what actually matters and drowning out the chaos.
“During the day, you only need to get three things done,” O’Leary recently said on the Build or Break podcast with Daniel Lubetzky. “They’re important each day—not the big vision. Just three things done. You have to do those first. Anything that stops you from getting the three things done is noise.”
O’Leary says the best of the best in business share one quality in common. They can tune out the “noise” of their personal lives—like watercooler small talk, or phone calls from aunts—and hone in on the “signal” of what actually needs to get done straight away. Mr. Wonderful says his former business partner Jobs had the perfect signal-to-noise ratio of 80:20. It may have made him “extremely difficult to work with,” O’Leary explains, but points to what he’s accomplished with a “tough” and “brutal” leadership style.
Other entrepreneurs can muffle the static of life and zero in on what actually matters. The 72-year-old Canadian businessman also says he’s seen Elon Musk’s intense “signal” personality up close at entrepreneur Mark Burnett’s Shark Tank Christmas parties. O’Leary recounted that if the Tesla founder didn’t find value in a conversation, he would simply walk away from the group. It might be a faux pas in the grand scheme of social norms, but it plays out well in the world of business. O’Leary knows the mindset all too well; the successful investor is known both for his brutal honesty and financial wins.
“[Musk] just doesn’t want to waste his time, and look at what he’s achieved,” O’Leary continued. “This idea of signal to noise is going to make you a difficult person, and it has. That’s why I have so many critics…I don’t care, because it’s noise. It just doesn’t matter to me. And so if it doesn’t matter to me, why should I put any energy into it at all?”
O’Leary discovered the ‘founders mindset’ while working with Jobs in the 1990s
For O’Leary, the lesson Jobs taught him went beyond simply getting more done. He also developed a “founder’s mindset” to cut through the noise—knowing what deserves your attention and having the discipline to shut out everything else.
In the 1990s, SoftKey Software Products—later named The Learning Company—spearheaded the development of Apple’s educational software. O’Leary suggested that Jobs hear input from students and teachers about what they wanted from the program. But Jobs had none of it, saying their opinions didn’t matter and that the games would be most successful if they followed the Apple cofounder’s lead.
O’Leary said Jobs led with a brutal leadership persona, but respected how he kept his eye on the ball. The Shark Tank investor has also managed to reach that 80:20 dynamic, striking a balance between business and hobbies like watch and guitar collecting to stay dynamic. Others, like Musk, let signal dominate the space where noise creates harmony.
“I’ve had to work on it, because I didn’t even know that was important till I went through my whole thing with Jobs way back in the early 90s,” O’Leary told Fortune last year. “But I also deal with it in every aspect of what I’m doing…[If] business is biting, you focus on making money or losing money.”
Without cultivating that 80:20 founder’s mindset, O’Leary’s entrepreneurial track record could have looked a whole lot different. He’s had massive entrepreneurial success, founding SoftKey Software Products in the basement of his Toronto pad in 1983, and later selling the company to Mattel for $3.7 billion in 1999. He has since built a reputation as a prolific investor, backing dozens of companies like Groove Book, Blueland, and Basepaws. And most notably, he’s held his role as no-nonsense Shark Tank investor “Mr. Wonderful” for 17 seasons.
O’Leary may come across as prickly to some, but he believes that his haters have turned out to be great motivators. With over 40 years of skin in the game, O’Leary isn’t easily deterred by a snide comment or occasional failure; he’s practiced being able to tune out the “noise” of critics and external pressures, and focus on the three most important things for the day.
“I’m fairly lucky. I’ve made lots of mistakes in investing, but I’ve also had some extraordinary outcomes…I’m not scared to fail,” O’Leary told Fortune. “I never bet the farm on any one thing.”