iReckon.

The news of Steve Jobs passing made me stop and think. I tried to think of what the world would be like without his vision and drive.

He proved that shallow aims such as wealth, fame and power can be a bi-product of an overall greater goal, that a vision should be pure and not tainted by less significant trappings.

Granted, he was a staunch capitalist, but his pursuit for high quality outweighed his drive for dollar signs.

This ethos has been vibrating in my mind for the last few days like a persistent alarm bell. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning and prepare for a long stretch of hours in the studio I say, “Right, just get the job done and finish”. But then I think of the times I went to a studio as a teenager, the times I was rushed through songs, that were rehearsed for hours, by an ‘engineer’ who couldn’t care less if you played a part to slow or sung the wrong line in the chorus. He just wanted to get paid and send you on your way so he could record his ‘solo’ record. Then the alarm bell rings again. I think: it doesn’t matter if the take home profit goes down a little, it doesn’t matter if it takes an extra few hours to get the ‘right’ vocal, as these songs and the time I spend on them are my pursuit for the highest quality, the vision.

Of course, it would be nice to earn a few extra pounds at times, but its not about now. I’m sure Steve Jobs could have chosen a few short term gain options along the way. Thankfully he didn’t.