"Signal, not noise" - Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary reveals how billionaires Steve Jobs and Elon Musk function

According to Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, billionaires such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk give importance to signal over noise.

This means that their undivided attention is given to what matters while blocking out everything else that does not contribute to their goals. Their relentless focus and vision are what set them apart from the rest, says Kevin.

Explaining the concept, the Shark Tank investor says that signal is "the ability to complete the task that you have set for yourself." It could be "three things, or five things." As for the noise, it is the opposite of the same, meaning, "all the other things that’s going to distract you."

Writing down in his caption, Kevin elaborated,

"Steve Jobs didn’t care about market research. "He told people what they wanted, and the results spoke for themselves. And Elon Musk? He’ll walk away mid-conversation if you bore him. Why? Because they focus on signal, not noise. Waste time on distractions, and you lose. Simple as that."

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary shared how Steve Jobs worked at Apple

Kevin says that Steve Jobs was deemed to be ruthless when it came to working at Apple and handling his business. He was in pursuit of excellence and market dominance.

When the topic of market research was opened, he shut it down completely, claiming that customers do not know what they want to buy until they see it. Reminiscing about an incident from the time that the Shark Tank investor used to work with him at the old Apple headquarters, he said,

"The woman that was doing Oregon trail, she came for the presentation and said, 'Steve, I want to spend 2 million bucks of your money on market research to determine whether these features are better than others.' He said to her, 'We don't do market research at Apple. Nobody knows what they want until I tell them what they want. Then they buy it because I said so.'"

The belief that Steve had over his work with Apple was more about trusting his vision and instincts rather than being arrogant when it came to its products.

Kevin continued that he tried talking to Steve about how he was being an "a**hole" to the woman, but his reply was straightforward.

He asked if Kevin was making a lot of cash and whether or not the company was growing their share faster than anyone else in the market. Both of the questions had positive answers, which prompted Steve to tell Kevin to "shut up and go to work."

The Shark Tank investor says that Jobs accepted 15% of the money in his work, but another billionaire that he has met, Elon Musk, has 0% tolerance towards something that is not building his goals.

Kevin claims that the Tesla CEO is not afraid to walk away from noise even if it may end up offending anybody. Elaborating, he said,

"One other guy, who is 100% signal, and I've never met anybody like him, is Elon Musk. No noise. 100% signal. Walks away from you if you're boring him in a conversation. Doesn't give a sh*t."

Kevin's anecdotes about these billionaires underscore the fact that every individual should not focus on the noise but on the signal. This could mean their studies if they are in school, work if they are employed, or progress in business.

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes are released weekly on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time on Fridays. They are later available to watch on Hulu.

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