60 CREATE THE STORY
Jobs not only breaks up his presentations into groups but
also describes features in lists of three or four items. “There are
three major breakthroughs in iPod,” Jobs said in 2005. “The first
one is, it’s ultraportable” [5 GB, one thousand songs in your
pocket]. “Second, we’ve built in Firewire” [Jobs explained how
Firewire enabled a download of an entire CD in five to ten sec-
onds, versus five to ten minutes via a USB connection]. “Third,
it has extraordinary battery life,” Jobs said.^12 He then described
how the iPod provided ten hours of battery life, ten hours of
continuous music.
This chapter could easily have become the longest in the
book, because every Steve Jobs presentation contains verbal
road maps with the rule of three playing a prominent role. Even
when he’s not using slides in a traditional keynote presenta-
tion, Jobs is speaking in threes. Jobs kicked off his now famous
Stanford commencement address by saying, “Today I want to
tell youthreestories from my life.”^13 His speech followed the
outline. He told three personal stories from his life, explained
what they taught him, and turned those stories into lessons for
the graduates.Applying the Rule of Three
As we’ve learned, business leaders often prepare for major tele-
vision interviews or keynote presentations by structuring their
message around three or four key points. I know, because I train
them to do so! Here is how I would apply the advice from Scenes
4 and 5 to prepare for an interview on the topic of this book.
First, I would create a headline of no more than 140 characters:
“Deliver a presentation like Steve Jobs.” Next, I would write
three big ideas: (1) Create the story, (2) Deliver the experience,
and (3) Package the material. Under each of the three ideas, I
would include rhetorical devices to enhance the narrative: sto-
ries, examples, and facts. Following is an example of how an
abbreviated interview might unfold: