Steve Jobs, the charismatic founder and CEO of Apple has died. That’s old news now though, he died on Wednesday, but I’ve been in the Australian outback and I only found out yesterday when I saw an email from a friend with the title ‘Jobsy.’ I immediately knew what the email would tell me, that Steve Jobs had succumbed to the rare form of pancreatic cancer he had been fighting.
I didn’t know Steve Jobs, or rather I didn’t know him much more than other people who use and enjoy Apple products. I’d heard stories of his tight control on product design and his outlandish behaviour in the early days of Apple.
My favorite of those stories is when, in 1983, Jobs lured the CEO of Pepsi, John Sculley, away from the soft drinks manufacturer with the question, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
He was famous for being a fierce micro-manager, a CEO who spent a great deal of his time involved in the smallest of details that most CEOs would leave to others. I had an experience of that myself back in 2001 when Steve Jobs himself ordered that a website I was running should be closed down.
Mac Cards was essentially a Apple fan site that used pictures of Apple products in ecards that people could send to one another. The site was a quick success and became very popular in the Mac community. However, Steve Jobs sent another Apple executive a ‘Mac Card’ that read “How can anyone represent us in this way?!!” It was an ominous forewarning to the legal intervention that followed soon after.
Mac Cards was forced to close amid a storm of negative publicity. The company was widely criticised for using heavy handed tactics. Even Apple’s own co-founder Steve Wozniak publicly commented that the company had overreacted, and in an email to me Wozniak wrote, “The Apple that you love is the people that use Apple products and the community that they represent. This ‘Apple’ supports you.”
In the end Apple sought to smooth things over with myself and my friend Will (who was also named in their UK high court injunction), though I have little doubt that decision didn’t come from Mr Jobs.
It’s sad that he’s died so young. At 56 years old he was still very much ahead of the game in the technology world. His ability to drive innovation and market desire was the envy of every company in the world. And while Apple didn’t necessarily invent a raft of new technologies (as my angry friend Darryl would often point out), it put them together in a way that the world wanted to use them.
As I said, I didn’t know Steve Jobs, and already many blogs and column inches have been devoted to his passing. But in true Jobs style I’ll add just ‘one more thing‘ and leave you with the words of Jobs himself that he said to students in a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
—
The famous look of Steve Jobs
What made Steve Jobs unique
5 industries Jobs helped change forever
[Video] The Crazy Ones
[Video] One more thing
Wrote the following comment on Oct 9, 2011 at 1:43 am
Never met Jobs, nor met anyone who did, yet he shaped my career, interests, creativity, stock portfolio, and sense of possibilities more than almost anyone.
I bought a used first-gen 128K Mac in 1985 to do my master’s thesis, and I’ve never looked back. I spent many years in cubicles using Windows products, but only when somebody was willing to pay me to use Windows; never by choice.
Jobs’/Apple’s visionary products empowered me to break free of those shackles and do the same work, independently, in a space (home!) and with the tools (Mac/Apple!) I chose. I am happier and I make more money this way. Separate and apart from the innumerable benefits Jobs brought to the many industries he touched and transformed, he made my life broader, more personally innovative, and financially remunerative.
We are all living on borrowed time. Wish Steve could have extended his line of credit.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 9, 2011 at 8:24 am
I’ve always been proud of my ability to never get sucked into any of the previous global weep fests, whether it was Princess Di, or Elvis or John Lennon or Michael Jackson. On a human level I was sorry they died but their deaths were pretty much an abstraction to me and left me emotionally untouched. Steve Job’s passing is a different shooting match altogether and it’s made my week a lot worse. I’m not losing perspective, I never met Steve Jobs so it’s not the equivalent of a death in the family but it does feel like a death in a way none of the aforementioned ever did and I’ve been trying to figure out why.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 9, 2011 at 8:46 am
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 9, 2011 at 9:40 am
Wozniak said this week that Steve Jobs gave mankind the greatest tools we have ever seen.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 9, 2011 at 10:52 am
That’s true Semil. They’re called Apple fanboys.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 9, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Oh Jason, the fanboy thing is so old and outdated. Apple are now mainstream, the people who buy their products are joe public, not some cultish fanboys. Someone commented to their sister that SJ had died, she didn’t know who that was, she then went back to texting on her iPhone. I’d suggest that these days, Apple users are not fanboys, they just like Apple products, it’s the Android fans that are swarming all over the net rabidly foaming at the mouth and spewing anti Apple venom all over forums at every opportunity. It is they who have this superior swagger, this elitist look down their nose attitude that dares buy an Apple product.
People like Apple products, they’re not gullible or stupid, they just like them, so they spend thir money and vote with their wallets.
I fear for Apple without Jobs. When you hear how much he was involved with the design of every product, you can’t help but feel things will change without him.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 10, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Someone doesn’t have a sense of humor it seems.
I guess you don’t have a car, telephone, TV? Maybe you don’t use the national grid, or batteries, maps, gps, pens, the postal service? Perhaps you have never taken a plane anywhere, gone on a train, sat on a bus or subway shuttle. Maybe you’ve never been to a Doctor to get antibiotics, or taken a pill to get rid of pain, had a inoculation to prevent you from catching a desease that once killed us, or had a surgeon stitch you up or perform in depth surgery? Perhaps you’ve never worn clothes, used a lighter, walked on pavement, read a book, or listened to the radio?
Steve Jobs gave mankind the greatest tools we have ever seen.
Uh ha. Sure he did.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 10, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Apple’s devices have had a huge impact on the world, but yes, some perspective is needed.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 11, 2011 at 2:22 am
I loved this from the Onion;
Last American who knew what the fuck he was doing dies
Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Computer and the only American in the country who had any clue what the fuck he was doing, died Wednesday at the age of 56. “We haven’t just lost a great innovator, leader, and businessman, we’ve literally lost the only person in this country who actually had his shit together and knew what the hell was going on,” a statement from President Barack Obama read in part, adding that Jobs will be remembered both for the life-changing products he created and for the fact that he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas—attributes he shared with no other US citizen. “This is a dark time for our country, because the reality is none of the 300 million or so Americans who remain can actually get anything done or make things happen. Those days are over.” Obama added that if anyone could fill the void left by Jobs it would probably be himself, but said that at this point he honestly doesn’t have the slightest notion what he’s doing any more.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 12, 2011 at 6:37 am
Where would the world be today without Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs was born to unmarried parents who put him up for adoption. If abortion was more acceptable back in 1956, Steve Jobs may have been aborted because his birth parents lack the will, means and love to raise him. The abortion of pre-born could possibly deny a person from ever making contributions to the world.
Thank God Steve Jobs had lived long enough to make his great contributions to the world. Without him we would all be back in 1980.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 13, 2011 at 9:24 pm
What if SJ had turned out to be a mass murderer, would abortion have been the preferable option then?
Wrote the following comment on Oct 14, 2011 at 1:34 am
@ Jason – I actually did laugh out loud. :)
Wrote the following comment on Oct 20, 2011 at 4:39 am
Jobs was known to most by his products and their sale. he was certainly successful in incorprating developements from the engineering communinity into his machines. He has changed a lot of form but substance? That I am not sure about. There is a rampant redundant culture as a result. Gadgets needing changing every year or two to fuel the machine. And to what end? The machines are elegant and useful but life changing????