STEVE JOBS - SINNER, SAINT OR GENIUS?

Steve Jobs - A man who thought different

Just read the biography of Steve Jobs by Karen Blumenthal and it really was interesting. Such a driven single minded person who wanted to ensure that technological products were easy for the consumer to use and also looked aesthetically pleasing as well. He put himself in the consumer's skin and dreamt up ideas and concepts that the consumer himself had not considered and did not even think that he\she would ever want. Steve Jobs could think of what the consumer would go for without mountains of marketing research. Would consumers themselves have reported that they would need an Ipad or even an I phone? Probably not -- the ability to predict what people will want is invaluable and he had that ability.He was not alone in this. His partner Steve Wozniak was technically superior -- but preferred the development of the product side rather than "ordering people around".

Opportunities were seized and ideas stolen and modified -- especially from Rank Xerox which invented the mouse and the concept of tiled ( Window like screens) -- about 10 years before they were commercially developed by both Apple and Microsoft. The lesson for Xerox was that having a good idea is not enough -- developing it and bringing it to market is just as important and also needs a lot of capital skill guts and determination. Also the ability to argue against people who are "right" when you are perceived to be "wrong".

Steve Jobs could also be mean spirited  -- he did not offer all of his close collaborators company stock in Apple. When he got a better than expected return from a deal he only gave Steve Wozniak $350 when it should have been $2,500. He used to rubbish certain ideas then after he had thought things through he later claimed that he had supported them or even that he had thought of them in the first place. Yes I know people like that too!!

He also made his fair share of mistakes -- the Apple 3 computer did not sell as well as the Apple 2 and there was a lack of contact points for peripherals to be connected to it -- even though this was suggested to him by his technical staff. He ignored this - he did not like on\off buttons,especially on the I Pod. When he was 30 - he was summarily stripped of his duties at Apple as a disruptive trouble maker and left the company. He then formed NeXT computers trying to produce big knowledge based scientific machines - This did not work either and he was saved by purchasing Pixar and ensuring that he funded talented animators to produce films like Toy Story, Cars and finding Nemo. Apple bereft of of new products and ideas welcomed him back and he became an advisor and then Apples Chief Executive in 1997. Just over 10 years after he left the company as a failure.  Yes there can be redemption for all of us.

Not a computer geek nor a techie, through Pixar and Apple he revolutionised the world of films ( computer animation), personal computing, music , phones and then mobile computing with the Ipad. For him the "journey was the reward." Simplicity was the ultimate sophistication

Perhaps the last words should be left to him, from part of his 2005 address at Stanford University.

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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."

"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. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Wise words but do we have the courage to follow them?

Full text of the speech is at: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html