Leave The Sneakers to Steve Jobs

[caption id="attachment_2379" align="alignleft" width="398" caption="Apple's CEO Steve Jobs"][/caption]

How important is personal image to you? Maybe not so much after work is over, but what about when you have to work? Is personal appearance an important factor when running a business? Take a look at Steve Jobs, CEO and mastermind behind everything Apple, who wears the same thing everyday; black shirt, blue jeans and athletic shoes. Now I like to consider myself somewhat of a fashion-guru, and I know that when it comes to the workplace, paring athletic shoes with blue jeans and a crisp black shirt does not fly in the workplace. Carmine Gallo of Forbes discusses why Steve Jobs is the only person in the workplace that can dress the way he does.

In the movie Crazy Stupid Love, Steve Carrell plays an awkward forty-something man whose wife wants a divorce.  As he’s getting used to life as newly single, he meets the dashing, smooth-talking character played by Ryan Gosling who takes Carrell under his wing.  In one particularly funny scene, Carrell shows up for a style “lesson” wearing khakis and running shoes.

“Are you Steve Jobs?” asked

Gosling.

“Uh, no,” said Carrell.

“Are you the CEO of Apple?” asked Gosling.

“No, I’m not,” said Carrell.

“Then you have no business wearing New Balance running shoes,” said Gosling as he took the shoes and threw them over a railing.

Here’s a question that I that get quite frequently: Why can Steve Jobs get away with wearing jeans and running shoes as the CEO of a major publicly traded company?  It’s a simple answer—because he’s Steve Jobs.  When you pioneer the personal computer and create a string a world changing products like the iPod, iPhone and the iPad, you’ll have won the right to dress any way you please.  But until you do, dress to impress.

Steve Jobs Didn’t Always Wear the Turtleneck. There’s a little known story about Steve Jobs that bears repeating.  During his 12-year absence from Apple from 1985 to 1997 Steve Jobs started NeXT.  One day he was heading to the bank to ask for a loan and his partner showed up to Steve’s house in blue jeans.  Steve told him to put on a suit (or borrow one of his) because “we’re going to the bank today.”

Steve Jobs doesn’t care anymore about the impression he makes, but he certainly cared when he was a young entrepreneur asking for a loan.  Today Jobs dresses in whatever makes him comfortable, and obviously what makes him comfortable are blue jeans, a black mock turtleneck and running shoes.  But as a leader or aspiring leader, you’re not Steve Jobs and what you wear speaks volumes about you.  We might not like to believe that people judge us based on what we wear, but they do.

Read more at Forbes