Expert Jeff Krasno agrees with Steve Jobs or Tim Cook: positive stress has been key to their careers
What is this thing about good stress or ‘eustress’? We would have to go back to 1976, when the endocrinologist Hans Selye coined this word to refer to beneficial stress, whether psychological, when carrying out some physical activity, or at a biochemical level, when prolonged fasting causes ketone bodies to induce autophagy.
The fact is that “good stress” has gained strength thanks to experts like Jeff Krasno, who argues in his book ‘Good Stress: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things’ that exposing ourselves to small daily challenges can strengthen our resilience and well-being. Curiously, this philosophy is not so far from the way Apple’s iconic figures such as Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have approached their vital careers.
Steve Jobs, the master of “creative stress”
Could the secret of Apple’s success lie, at least in part, in this mindset? It’s possible. The concept of “good stress” refers to situations that, although they may generate temporary discomfort, contribute to personal growth. Think of intermittent fasting, cold water therapy or the challenge of engaging in new social relationships. Through exposure to these situations we train our capacity for emotional regulation, which translates into long-term benefits.
Steve Jobs also created an environment in which “good stress” was part of everyday life. He demanded the impossible, trained his colleagues’ patience, forced his teams out of their comfort zone. Even having lunch with him was dangerous. A clear example was the development of the first iPhone. Jobs pressured engineers to create a touch screen made of glass instead of plastic.
And you only have to look at the result: far from demotivating them, that constant tension spurred the team’s creativity and in the end they succeeded and set a trend in the market. But Jobs was also a good friend of saying “no” to projects that did not align with his vision, even if they were advanced, which generated tension but resulted in the optimization of resources.
Because saying no is also part of the art of prioritizing. As Tim Cook said in his interview for The Verge, he uses all Apple products on a daily basis to stay aligned with the user experience, which helps him make more informed decisions and draw conclusions before anyone else.
Tim Cook’s “impossible” routine
The daily routine of Tim Cook, which is even functional for other people, as documented by my colleague Álvaro García, is also very hard and physically demanding. And while Jobs’ approach was creative intensity, Tim Cook embodies constant discipline. His daily routine is designed to foster personal and professional resilience. Cook gets up at 4:00 a.m. and spends the first few hours exercising, keeping both his mind and body in shape.
Like Krasno, Cook suggests exposing oneself to “positive stress” through exercise or meditation. It is not for nothing that he is famous for the beatings he gives himself by reading hundreds of emails when the sun has not even risen. Thanks to this discipline he has been able to weather the various crises that Apple has experienced with regard to the DMAs, successes that got off to a lukewarm start such as the launch of the Apple Watch or the transition to in-house processors.
Science supports the practices of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook
In short, what Krasno proposes in his book was already common practice in the Apple culture. Jobs and Cook, each in their own way, adopted routines that challenged them on a daily basis, like all leaders, building not only revolutionary products, but also taming their own desires for the common good of Apple.
It is clear that we are talking about habits that can be uncomfortable in the short term, that need to be analyzed because each biorhythm is different and each anatomy is unique, which always implies consulting experts, in order to make decisions consistent with our own needs. But as Cook has said on many occasions, “discipline is the key to freedom”. In a world where the culture of comfort is the norm, of letting others choose for you, eustress seems to be one of the bases for the growth of two figures like Jobs and Cook, at least in the workplace, which is what we see on the outside.
