One of the
most innovative leaders of our generation, Steve Jobs passed away two years ago
(October 5, 2011) after his battle with pancreas neuroendocrine tumor. He was
the co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc when he was alive. Steve Jobs was
born on February 24, 1955.
Steve led
innovations while he was alive and revived an ailing Apple company when he came
back to the company for his second time in 1996. Apple came out with products
like iMac which was based on the NeXT computers founded by Steve Jobs.
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| Steve Jobs. Img: AP |
He also made
an indelible print on the digital world with his animation company Pixar (which
was later sold to Walt Disney) and the introduction of the music device, iPod.
One of the
biggest achievements of the late Apple CEO was the making of the iPhone which
has revolutionized the smartphone making even till now. The iPad is not left
out as it started the mass exodus of people from PC to mobile devices in
collaboration with smartphones.
Steve Jobs
was always known for his ability to believe that everything is possible and has
a way of convincing Apple employees that it is in fact possible. The term
‘reality distortion field’ was used to describe Jobs’ charisma.
He was also a
perfectionist and this explains why the expectation is always high on Apple’s
products. No wonder he once said: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people
aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
He was a zen
Buddhist and always credit his creative abilities to a period of time he spent
in India. He called the experiences “one of the two or three most important
things [he had] done in [his] life”.
Not that
Steve Jobs lacked problems when he was alive, he had them and some of them
probably pushed him to succeed which he admitted. Steve was adopted as a child
by Paul and Clara Jobs after his real parents Abdulfattah “John” Jandali and
Joanne Carole Schieble gave him up for adoption because Carole’s family didn’t
approve of their relationship.
He also
dropped out of Reed College when Paul and Clara could no more afford his
tuition. Steve was ousted from the company he co-founded; Apple in 1985 after
Board relieved him of his duties. He later came back to the company in 1996 and
led the company to become the most valuable publicly traded company in the
world.
He later
called his sack the best thing that happened to him: “The heaviness of being
successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure
about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my
life.”
“I’m pretty
sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was
awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.” he said.
Steve Jobs is
your perfect example of envisioning the future when designing products for
consumers. “There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love ‘I skate to where
the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do
that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.” he said.
Steve Jobs
knows the value of corporation and as a fan of the Beatles, he based his
business strategy on their policy.
“My model for
business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative
tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than
the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person,
they are done by a team of people.” he said.
Steve Jobs
has laid down his legacies while he was alive and has shown this generation
what innovation is and the big effect it has on a society. You will forever be
remembered Steve Jobs.
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Surprised not so many comments #isad. An inspiration, a man of this century and those to come. Can't believe is dead. Well will play my favourites on my ipod to honour him. Olumide thanks for this post.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good thing to know about the man. I think any usage of those products is a testimony to his work.
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