THE EMPTY TABLE PRINCIPLE 

Why “Doing Less” Will Help You Accomplish More?

Autumn of 1997 witnessed the onset of the collapse of Apple. Analysts foresaw the demise of the company’s operations, employees were quitting on a mass scale, and the company that represented rebellion and creativity seemed irrelevant. But the comeback of Steve Jobs after an agonizing dozen years seemed expectedly followed by an inspiring talk or an insightful new business strategy. But what the world got instead was even more potent and hauntingly more daunting—a reality of silence.

Jobs strode into the meeting on the product strategy and stopped at the head of an enormous conference table overflowing with every item Apple could possibly sell. There were computers, printers, prototypes of still-unrefined products that were half-complete—a dizzying array of merchandise that reminded everyone of the company’s loss of purpose. He didn’t say a word. He simply stood there, observing the chaos with an air of sadness or possibly outrage. His employees coughed nervously and darted their glances at each other.

Finally, Jobs began to talk. Though shaken, Jobs’ voice remained calm but firm. He told everyone that Apple could only concentrate on four products going forward. And these four products could only increase the company’s reputation because they would be products of innovation; they would be “insanely great.” All other projects had to go. What ensued could only be called resistance on the part of almost everyone sitting there. Engineers passionately justified their projects, the marketing team frantically tried to save the products that were on the cutting floor because an insistence on their elimination meant the demise of their years of hard work and dedication. Jobs refused to deviate from this path. Device by device, the table emptied completely until only the empty place remained. And with complete conviction, Jobs proclaimed, “This. this is how we win.”

And out of this empty table came the line of products that changed the world—the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. More than just products with specific functionality, these became symbols of culture. The remarkable comeback of Apple wasn’t because they introduced new products but because they got rid of the products that do not contribute to their real mission. And so the principle of the empty table was formed.

The sagacity of abstention is profoundly ingrained within Indian philosophical thinking. The Bhagavad Gita tells us that the essence of growth consists of an unrelenting concentration on one path only. Swami Vivekananda made this point with great force when he urged that one should take up “one idea” only and live it out completely. Within the domine of Indian classical music too, the essence of a raga consists of its shape being based on neither a hundred notes nor on a series of few movements. Within this constraint of purposeful limitation, one weaves the richest of human feeling. Perhaps the practice of concentration of the mind is part of our very DNA.

Throughout the world, the greatest minds of the ages have reiterated this fact their own way. To Bruce Lee, mastery wasn’t about accumulation but refinement—the stripping away of the unnecessary. To Leonard da Vinci, simplicity represented the very definition of sophistication. Warren Buffett’s investment strategy hinged on the fact that the best results come from the fewest decisions made with the utmost conviction. All these pivot on the same point—to realize that true power emanates not from complexity but clarity.

The Empty Table Principle reminds us that we do not buy more; we buy certainty. A simple and clear message, product, or life mission generates confidence instead of confusion. Purpose replaces noise. Progress results instead of paralysis. What makes this point clear is that we do not need more goals; we need better alignment with the only goal that makes a differentiating impact on our lives. What we do not need more of are additional opportunities; we need the bravery of the “No” that begins with saying “No” to the noise that drains our power. Growth requires refinement.

There’s an old Indian fable that makes this point powerfully. A young student went to a wise teacher and told the teacher with great enthusiasm of wanting to know a lot of things—to study astronomy and poetry and the arts of war. As the student talked, the teacher poured tea into the student’s cup. The cup became full and overflowed. The student stopped the teacher and said, “Please stop! The cup cannot hold anymore.” The wise teacher just smiled and said, “Just like this cup, your mind is full—aesthetically full. How could you possibly learn more until the cup—the mind—is emptied?” Our aesthetically full lives make our mind empty of clarity, creativity, and breakthroughs. Our tables must first be emptied before new things take up residence on them. 

As a new year draws near or unfolds before you, the question that matters most isn’t what more you can bring to your life; it’s what you might remove. What obligations distract and stretch out your energies? What projects exhaust without enlightening the horizon of your future? What tendencies obscure your meaning instead of defining it more clearly? 

To do great things usually requires that you refrain from so many of them. All that your table requires isn’t more stuff on it but space. This table requires purpose. This table requires the courage of subtraction. Because after you take out the clutter that exists on the table of tasks, obligations, visions, worries, and interruptions, the resulting reality will surely reveal the clear path to your very own version of “insanely great”! And the result could just be the beginning of your greatest accomplishments.

Dr. Prahlada N.B
MBBS (JJMMC), MS (PGIMER, Chandigarh). 
MBA in Healthcare & Hospital Management (BITS, Pilani), 
Postgraduate Certificate in Technology Leadership and Innovation (MIT, USA)
Executive Programme in Strategic Management (IIM, Lucknow)
Senior Management Programme in Healthcare Management (IIM, Kozhikode)
Advanced Certificate in AI for Digital Health and Imaging Program (IISc, Bengaluru). 

Senior Professor and former Head, 
Department of ENT-Head & Neck Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, Cochlear Implant Surgery. 
Basaveshwara Medical College & Hospital, Chitradurga, Karnataka, India. 

My Vision: I don’t want to be a genius.  I want to be a person with a bundle of experience. 

My Mission: Help others achieve their life’s objectives in my presence or absence!

My Values:  Creating value for others.