The biography of Steve Jobs left me in a state of flux where I forcefully pondered about his two traits: a**hole and visionary. Is it possible to despise and admire the same person? Can a person be both – a ruthless jerk and a genius? May be not, but I believe that Steve Jobs made an exception, and, indeed, he had both the aforementioned traits where people hated him – mostly – and respected him at the same time.
I had an amazing journey with the book where I came to know many traits of Steve Jobs, and also, I learnt so much about running a company. The terms Apple and Steve Jobs are glued with each other. In other words, they are inseparable, and the use of either of them will force you to think about both of these terms. Apple was Steve Jobs’s dream, vision, life and a way to change the world. And yes, he did change the world in terms of technology and gadgets. Apple products are far more than a brand for people. The aesthetic look and feel of the devices make their owners extremely proud for owning something extraordinary which marvels in all the aspects of beauty and design. All my Apple gadgets – iPod, iPhone, and iPad – have become my endearing eccentricities which, of course, is not a sane fact. Through the medium of this article, I would like to share some of his thoughts, good side and bad side.
Abandoned by his biological parents, Steve Jobs directly or indirectly was affected from this trauma. Albeit, he had great foster parents, the thought of forsaken did bother him for most of his life. He was a complex person who suffered from tempestuous mood swings. He believed a lot in innovation, and he knew that it was the key to success. He had a soft corner and an enormous respect for creative people. Perfectionism was not something he learnt from someone; I think he was born with it. He knew that even a tiniest detail makes a difference, and for something to be perfect, all the elements have to come together in an impeccable manner. He was an honest person – and by that I mean brutally honest – where he never refrained from using the most derogatory and obnoxious language in case he does not like something. This was his style, and when he was asked to deal with people in a respectful manner, he said that he does not want to be fake. He would like to stick to his personality rather than being someone who he is not. And this is how Apple products are. All the products reflect his personality where his aim was to make people feel that the products not only have great looks, but they are also great in terms of functionality – no sham. Some people say that give the customers what they want; however, Steve Jobs said that people do not know what they want until you show it to them. And this is what he did. He created gadgets that looked so magical and extraordinary in their appearance that everybody used to dream about their possession. He was a great impresario where his every presentation on the launch of his products is remarkable. He used to leave the audience in awe, and the crowd used to go berserk at his appearance and speech. His amazing aura was beyond measure. He had an emotional touch with his products, and one great thing which he used to mention was “When you are creating something, think that you are creating it for yourself rather than your customers.”
After reading the book, I realized that everything happened for a reason in his life. Apple was born on April 1, 1976, and Steve Jobs was one of the founders along with his best friend Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. He was always difficult to deal with, and when his contentious behavior crossed a limit, he was asked to leave the company in 1985. He was devastated, and I believe that was the most difficult and excruciating phase of his life. However, he invented another company known as NeXT, and after sometime, he became the CEO of one of the greatest animation companies known as Pixar. The history was created again when he returned to Apple in 1997 to reclaim his throne, and Apple changed the entire gadget industry since then. They revolutionized the music industry by creating iPod and iTunes store. They introduced the concept of Apple stores where Steve Jobs spent great deal of effort in designing the strategy, but the historic moment came when Apple launched the most remarkable product known as iPhone. That moment completely changed the preferences and tastes of the people where everybody started looking forward to something which just has a screen and a button. Steve Jobs was absolutely correct in mentioning that people do not know what they want until you show it to them.
The Good Guy:
Steve Jobs was a genius and a great visionary. His uttermost passion to make great products was the biggest motivation factor for him. He never cared regarding what others perceive of him. He was so focused in creating great products that his harshness on people never bothered him about his reputation. He used to envisage unfeasible requirements which, at first instance, always looked impossible to the team, and if someone dared enough to say “it’s impossible”, he used to fire that person most of the times. However, he used to motivate his team to such a great extent that those imaginary requirements were achieved most of the times. He started his company at the age of 20, got it registered at the age of 22, and by the age of 25, he was worth $256 million. But his top priority was to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products; everything else was secondary. Of course, it was great to make profits because that’s what allowed him to make great products; however, the products, and not the profits, were the motivation for him. He was a perfectionist who believed in making perfect products in terms of their design and usability. And, in order to achieve this perfectionism, his mantra was to simplify things as much as possible. Steve Jobs gave lot of importance to simplicity, and he simplified every product to the tiniest detail. One of his quotes: “Simplicity is the ultimate perfection” is my favourite, and this is something I diligently follow where I keep things very simple in my professional and personal life.
Steve jobs strongly believed in the integration of hardware and software, and that is why, Apple has its own hardware which is very well integrated with the software. Unlike Microsoft where you can install the OS on any vendor’s machine, Steve Jobs never licensed its OS. He had the obsession for control; hence, he always preferred controlling the entire machine from top to bottom rather than licensing a part of it. He knew that Microsoft dominated the world of operating systems because of their open approach, and they were declared the winner in the personal computer realm, but Job’s concern was that if they follow the same approach, the system will be easy to hack which will destroy the simple user experience. In all honesty, I simply love this approach. That is why, it is more easy to hack Android because it is an open platform.
The Bad Guy:
Steve Jobs was never good at keeping good relations, and he did hurt a plethora of people in his life. He impregnated his girlfriend when he was 23, and he did not handle this situation well. He was not ready to accept the child as he did not want to take the responsibility. He took credit of lot of people, for instance, Steve Wozniak was the real brain behind Apple I as he was a technical genius; however, he felt that Jobs was very harsh on people and Woznaik never liked this fact. Lot of differences arose between two Steves, and after sometime, Wozniak moved on with other endeavors. Most importantly, Jobs never invented anything. He took the idea of Graphical User Interface (GUI) from Xerox PARC or you can say stole it; however, it is an irrefutable fact that the aforementioned company could have never achieved something which Steve Jobs did with the GUI. He once said, “Picasso has a saying – ‘good artists copy and great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
He was rude, discourteous, and disrespectful while criticizing people, and he never changed throughout his life. He was diagnosed with Pancreas cancer, and this made him suffer a lot. The excruciating pains made him difficult to survive, and even after coming back from his medical leave where he went through physical and mental trauma, his personality was still the same, and his harshness did not dissipate.
Steve Jobs had a roller-coaster life, and his intense personality of a creative entrepreneur revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Of course, he left a great legacy and became one of the greatest business executives, the one most certain to be remembered from a century from now.
Life………… Significance, Souvenirs, and Lessons 