"When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back." - Steve Jobs
Quality exists without witnesses.
Jobs nailed something about business most miss. Real excellence lives in places customers never look.
Make the hidden parts beautiful too.
We cut corners daily. Cheaper materials behind the facade. Quick fixes in the codebase. Sloppy documentation. Who cares if nobody sees?
You see it. Your team sees it.
These private choices build your company's character. A team that accepts hidden flaws makes visible ones eventually.
Weak foundations crack under pressure. Always.
Companies who use "good wood" everywhere attract craftspeople who care. They build resilience into their DNA. Their excellence becomes reflex, not performance.
Private standards create public results.
The back of your drawer shows who you really are.