IT on HGTV

Have you seen the Home and Garden Television Channel lately? Flip or Flop. The Property Brothers. Home Town. Tiny House Hunters.

It’s a lot of house flipping and fixing.

But there’s something else too.

Bob Iger tells a story of meeting with Steve Jobs during the earliest Disney and Apple negotiations about Pixar. At the time, Jobs was hesitant to work with Disney because of his cantankerous relationship with Iger’s predecessor.

At Iger’s meeting, Jobs talked almost the entire time. He explained why selling Pixar would be a terrible idea for both companies. He wrote each reason on the room’s whiteboard. He created a very long list.

Jobs also wrote down a few ideas why a deal was a good idea.

Let’s keep the door open Jobs told Bob.

Open? Why? The meeting seemed terrible.

But the reason is the same explanation for what makes a successful HGTV show.

Kathleen Fitch, the chief lifestyle brands officer of Discovery says it’s the “it factor”. If someone is scrolling channels and they pause, that’s an “it factor” and it’s more important than almost anything else.

Jobs focused on the same thing: a small number of good things can outweigh a long list of bad ones.

Whether it’s a large merger or a small hire, don’t let the numerous distract from the important.

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