The Power Of Belief: How Apple Built The Impossible Without Knowing It

In 1979, a group of engineers from Apple, including Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson, visited Xerox PARC. What they saw changed the course of computing history: a graphical user interface (GUI) with overlapping windows.

Jobs and Atkinson left that meeting convinced that a functional, multi-window interface was possible. They spent the next year relentlessly pushing the boundaries of software engineering to recreate it for the Lisa and the Macintosh.

The twist? The "multiple windows" they thought they had seen at Xerox weren't fully functional as they imagined. What they actually saw were overlapping windows, and they assumed the Xerox engineers had solved the complex problem of rendering them efficiently. The Reality: Xerox PARC did not actually have efficiently functioning overlapping windows in that demo—they had tiled windows or limited, slow screen redrawing.

Atkinson, believing it was possible and already done, was "enabled" to invent his own solution. He spent months working on the problem, even working through it in his dreams. Because he believed it had already been done, they didn't waste time asking if it was possible. They only asked how.

Belief as a Catalyst for Innovation

This story is one of the most profound examples of how belief dictates the limits of our achievement. In psychology, this is often linked to the "Four-Minute Mile" effect. For decades, it was a medical "fact" that the human heart would explode if a person ran a mile in under four minutes. Once Roger Bannister proved it could be done, dozens of runners broke the record within the same year. When you believe a goal has already been reached by someone else, your brain stops looking for excuses and starts looking for solutions.

The "Illusion" of Possibility

Atkinson and Jobs were chasing a "picture," yet they built a reality. This suggests that the most powerful form of belief isn't necessarily grounded in current facts—it is grounded in vision.

• Xerox had the technology but lacked the belief that it was a consumer necessity.

• Apple had the belief and used it to forge the technology.

  
  

If you approach a project with the mindset that the "impossible" part has already been solved, you bypass the hesitation that kills most great ideas. You operate with a level of certainty that forces your creative mind to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Applying This to Your Leadership

Whether you are leading a team through a digital transformation or launching a new product, the "Xerox moment" teaches us two things:

1. Don't wait for a map: If you can visualize the end result, treat it as an inevitability.

2. Borrow certainty: If you’re doubting a goal, find an example (even a loose one) of someone who has done something similar. Use their "picture" to fuel your year of building.

   
   

When you believe you can achieve anything, you don't just find a way—you build it.

If you want to learn how to instill this level of 'unshakable belief' within your team—and by extension, your entire organization—check out my new Amazon bestseller, The Blueprint of Leadership, by clicking the link below.

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