Fifty years after he helped his father build a fence around their house in Mountain View, Steve Jobs took his biographer Walter Isaacson to see it. Jobs skimmed his hand along one of the fence panels and told Isaacson the lesson his father instilled in him that day all those years ago. “He loved doing things right,” Jobs said as he directed Isaacson’s attention to the back of the fence. “He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.” A great carpenter, Jobs learned early, wouldn’t use an ugly piece of wood, even on the back of a drawer.
“Even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
This was the defining characteristic of Jobs’ career and every product he brought into the world: craftsmanship. If you’re going to make something, Jobs’ father taught him, make it beautiful. That’s why even the insides of Apple computers—which 99.9% of customers will never see—have their own aesthetic. It’s why so many features on Apple computers, even the minor ones, seem oddly satisfying and intuitive.
This is a philosophy we try to follow at Daily Dad. While it’d be cheaper, for instance, to produce our Tempus Fugit and Luctor et Emergo medallions overseas, each medallion is handcrafted in the United States by a custom mint that has been operating in Minnesota since 1882. And when we created our new leatherbound edition of The Daily Dad, we designed it full of features that will allow the book to be passed down to your children and further generations to come. Each book features a luxurious leather cover with gold foil stamping, vinyl endsheets, and a sewn ribbon bookmarker. Inside, you’ll also find all new hand-drawn illustrations for each section of the book to make the most important concepts more memorable.
The point is: If you’re going to do something, do it right. If you’re going to make something, make it beautiful. This isn’t just a lesson for business—it’s a lesson for life. It’s what we should teach our children, just as Jobs’s father taught him. We only get one shot at existence. We can’t let them do it halfway. We must show them what happens when you take the time to do things right. We must encourage them to be craftsmen, to care about even the unseen details, to strive for mastery in everything they do.
