Fifty-six is a short time on the planet these days but Steve Jobs changed the world in his time.
The thing I really admired about him was that he succeeded and then he failed. And then he came back. This is what drives capitalism—the entrepreneur. It wasn’t a committee or a board or bureau that gave him direction. He acted on his own. He trusted his inner voice and followed it with passion. That takes courage. He would be the first to admit that he didn’t do it alone but that is not the point of entrepreneurship. Someone has to decide and give direction and beat up on people and take the heat. That is the point. You can’t hire that. And that is why entrepreneurs start their own companies.
So what did he do? He started a successful personal computer company and then he failed. He was kicked out by his own board. And then they brought in the Pepsi guy (Sculley) and he ran the company into (almost) the ground. They brought him back and he saved the company. iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad. Plus Pixar.
So, what did he do? He made the pc cool and everyone wanted one (iMac; not me, I will admit). He changed the animation industry (Pixar). He completely changed the entire music industry (iPod, iTunes). He changed personal computing with a pocket computer that really works well (iPhone). Now he’s on the way to making the laptop a relic (iPad). And I think the new Siri software for the iPhone means something and you shouldn’t underestimate what it means. Think Star Trek: “Computer. What is the GDP of Romania?”.
He was the one, THE guy, who changed everything. He was probably the best of his generation. Gates did one good thing. A really great thing that Jobs missed entirely (a ubiquitous operating system that forced software makers to a single platform that spread the pc worldwide). But that was it for Gates and he’s still living off of that one thing.
Jobs was a great businessman and visionary. And we wouldn’t be walking around connected to the world with a computer in our pocket without him. These guys don’t come often.
Here are two very recent article on Jobs:
PS There are news reports that there are spontaneous gatherings at Apple stores throughout the world.
Just a couple “thoughts” on your post:
1. Apple didn’t invent Siri. It was an app developed for the iPhone that Apple then bought out entirely. It’s supposed to be a remarkable leap forward in AI. Really though, it just keeps in mind the last few things you’ve said. It’s contextual voice recognition. They have been a bit behind in all of this AI, and this is their version of catching up. I can ask my phone to “find GDP of Romania” right now and it would do it. Thank you Windows Phone 7. But, Steve Jobs casts his three-adjective marketing on it and all of the sudden it’s “Smarter. Faster. Better.”
My feeling is Siri is just them missing the mark. I can understand wanting to dictate an email or text message while you’re in the car. But if you’re that guy yelling at his phone in a restaurant… or talking to himself at home. Come on. It’s almost as laughable as walking down the street with blabbing into your tiny bluetooth headset like you were the most important person in the world, meanwhile the rest of us just think you’re psychotic.
2. He screwed up a lot. Not just a couple times, many, many times. The Apple iCube for one. The Apple Computer for another. Apple is NOT a successful computer-selling company by itself. It just isn’t. If not for all the toys they sell, it wouldn’t be half of what it is today, and that’s not saying much.
He is an undeniable marketing genius, and moreover, like you said, he just knew what the consumer wanted and bet the world on it.
Matt: i don’t think that “if” is a very compelling word, but i do think that what is and what was is real and powerful. if Gillette sold only razors and not blades, then they’d be alot less profitable … but they do sell blades.
i’m not a Jobs fan per so (especially his political stance which i thought was in conflict with how he lived, not unlike warren buffett), but if he screwed up many times, boy that means he must have succeeded an absurdly high number of times and on an overwhelming scale.
dd: You’re right, I’m not saying that he did not create an extremely well marketed ecosystem of music, video and personal computing. What I am saying, is give the man credit for what he did do, not what he didn’t create.
Most of us love Steve Jobs because he was the underdog that lost, and fought back, and won. He did it with a lot of cunning, legal action, and the entrepreneur’s gift of knowing what people want to spend money on. If you love the iPhone, great, love it, but the fans make me nauseated. It’s a rabid fanboyish that Steve Jobs helped cultivate.
I’m against the idea that we credit the man for “putting personal computers in our pockets”. He just didn’t. That’s like saying that Starbucks put coffee in our hands. They didn’t. They just created a new way of packaging it and put that message out incredibly effectively.
I agree with you on his hypocritical values.
fair enough, Matt, now i understand you and i agree with you on all points, especially on the nauseating and hypocritical parts.
All this is known and the fact that he screwed up is what is compelling about him. Gates didn’t invent DOS either, but so what. Who are your heroes, dude?
Mr. Harding
He is a hero of entrepreneurship, and I absolutely respect him for that. I won’t say capitalism, because I think that’s a different beast. He’s party to some very non-capitalist nonsense.
Bill Gates is unpopular because he beat Jobs and not a great speaker, but they all participated in the same competitive business tactics. Jobs just lost the first fight. For that, we love him. However, Gates “one thing” is that he created an environment that over 2 BILLION computers run on today versus something like 25 million macs. The business world operates (largely) on Windows. For better or worse.
Steve Jobs did not INVENT anything, he repackages the delivery mechanism. However, in my mind he’ll go down as the Godfather of Tech-hype, and for that he’s a genius.
Jobs made billions of people wealthier and earned billions for himself. Every entrepreneur or one-day-soon-entrepreneur should take his hat off to Steve Jobs.
Looking around Santa Barbara I see one very valid fact. Marketing to the young, children and women makes you very very rich. Stuffed fabric with beans, jeans, sleek toys for music and the modern cb radio, the cell phone. The demographics on who has and spends the money is mind boggling.
Number 1 daughter racked up 3000 minutes of voice/text in one college quarter, talk about distraction. I recently went for a guys week of diving, we finally threatened to throw one of the guys cellphone overboard if he did not get off the damn thing. Talking about not much, has become a social addiction. Dr. bud told me of a scrub nurse that forgot to prep a patient because she was texting on the job. The sturgeon noticed after the guy was cut open that his skin was not orange, wow, information overload. Parents paying $100 a month so their twinkie can have a smartphone is obscene but it is the norm.
Jobs is just one of the few that understood who had the $$ and how to extract it.
Jobs was the only computer guy that successfully bundled the iron and software, kept control, and made it elegant enough to sell to the target audience.
May he rest in Peace.
[...] Steve Jobs [...]