Mentor

"We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."-Steve Jobs

Jobs’ significance to the world of computers and consumer technology as we know it today cannot be underestimated. When he founded Apple in 1977, he was the first person to think of computers as something an ordinary person might be able to use, leading the team that designed the first mouse-based computing experience that has since become standard. After a 12-year hiatus from Apple, Jobs returned in 1997 to lead the charge that eventually led the company to completely revolutionize the world of technology, changing the way the world listens to music (the iPod), what we can do with our phones (the iPhone) and most recently, how we interact with digital content (the iPad). Yet for all the impact that Jobs had on the world of technology, we cannot help but think that he was the product of a uniquely American upbringing, having been raised in a liberal society that allows its young people to be free and question any authority.

He inspire millions to believe in the power of dreams. That’s probably what his legacy is and that’s probably why so many of us do care. Steve Jobs cofounded Apple, with high school buddy Steve Wozniak in 1976 in his parents’ garage, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination to technology and business.

Steve Jobs was an unconventional leader. His management style wasn't the stuff of university textbooks - he wasn't known for his consultative or consensus building approach. He was a "high-maintenance co-worker" who demanded excellence from his staff and was known for his blunt delivery of criticism. But it was his sheer genius combined with his ability to articulate his vision and bring staff, investors and customers along on the journey - plus the lessons learned in a major career setback - that made it work. A 'visionary' is how he is most often described in relation to Apple. According the LA Times, the market value of Apple's shares has grown from about $US5 billion in 2000 to $US351 billion today making it one of the biggest publicly listed companies in the US, up there with the likes of Exxon Mobil.

Jobs rise to the top was hardly textbook perfect. A university dropout, he worked at Atari and travelled through India before seeing a commercial opportunity in the computer. Focus was ingrained in Jobs’s personality and had been honed by his Zen training. He relentlessly filtered out what he considered distractions. Colleagues and family members would at times be exasperated as they tried to get him to deal with issues; a legal problem, a medical diagnosis—they considered important. But he would give a cold stare and refuse to shift his laser like focus until he was ready. Jobs’s ability to focus was accompanied by the related instinct to simplify things by zeroing in on their essence and eliminating unnecessary components. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” declared Apple’s first marketing brochure. To see what that means, compare any Apple software with, say, Microsoft Word, which keeps getting uglier and more cluttered with non-intuitive navigational ribbons and intrusive features. It is a reminder of the glory of Apple’s quest for simplicity. Jobs aimed for the simplicity that comes from conquering, rather than merely ignoring, complexity. Jobs’ ability to push the impossible was called his reality distortion field. 

Steve Jobs impulse to change the world and leaving a legacy behind made him believing that people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. That remarkable freedom of thought, nurtured in a democratic political culture and an entrepreneurial economic one, is what has made so many of its people bold thinkers, and enabled them to change the way the rest of us view the world. How else, for instance, would one explain a man who was neither an engineer nor a programmer become the founder and visionary leader of the world’s most valuable technology company. That rebellious spirit reflects an ethos found in whatever Jobs did in his life.

Quotes:

• Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.
• Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
• Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
• Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
• It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.
• Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
• My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
• Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.
• I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
• Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people. 
• 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. 
• 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. 
• Older people sit down and ask, 'What is it?' but the boy asks, 'What can I do with it?’
• No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.