(I wrote this article-or compiled it from my dairy pages-for the college magazine Beacon last year in the month of November. I wrote it before Steve's (Steve Job's) biography was released.)
How much a person should love doing his job or work to
continue to do it even when he knows that he is going to die soon? To be
precise until one and a half months before he dies, and that too because he
cannot, literally, do anything else on his own.
 | |
| Steven Paul Jobs in his late 20s.......... |
It’s ironical
that the central aspect of Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford University speech
revolved about one thing- Death, which he called- “probably the single most best invention of life”. He waged an
unflinching public battle (or I should call it a ‘war’) against this best invention of life.
Who is Steve Jobs? Why do people like him so much? (How
many times do you see people light candles, shed tears when a certain business
leader or an innovator dies?)
Steve Jobs is certainly more than what he
appears to be- an innovator who has 342 patents to his credits (with the last
patent being issued on the day before he died), a great business leader on
whose return Apple’s share price doubled each 21 ½ months, the only person in
the history to effect revolution in 6 industries (Thomas A. Edison could do it
in 3 industries!). He is all these but more. To try to put into (my) words-he is a human phenomenon, a
personification of a philosophy with its unique aroma.
When Steve Jobs talks about some crazy people who change the world in that Apple’s famous “Think Different” ad campaign, he was explaining himself out. It was like Jobs was dedicating that ad to himself.
“Because people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who actually do. We make products for those people. In their craziness we see genius.”- He says during the introduction of that ad for the fist time. Then in another interview he says-“One of the greatest motivations to make a great product is to use it yourself”. The point is he considered himself as one of those ‘crazy people’.
Here is one more thing that explains his credo- when asked about what drives him he replied
When Steve Jobs talks about some crazy people who change the world in that Apple’s famous “Think Different” ad campaign, he was explaining himself out. It was like Jobs was dedicating that ad to himself.
“Because people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who actually do. We make products for those people. In their craziness we see genius.”- He says during the introduction of that ad for the fist time. Then in another interview he says-“One of the greatest motivations to make a great product is to use it yourself”. The point is he considered himself as one of those ‘crazy people’.
Here is one more thing that explains his credo- when asked about what drives him he replied
“When you grow up you tend to get told that
the world is the way it is. And your life is just to live your life inside the
world-try not to bash into the walls too much, trying to have a nice family
life, have fun, save little money………… That’s very limited life. Life can be much
broader.
Once you discover one simple fact
……..and that is everything around you that you call life, was made up by people
who were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You
can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that
you can poke life….and actually something ….. Something if you push in and
something will pop-out the other side. You could change it, you could mould it.
That’s may be the most important thing. Once you learn that, you will never be
the same again.”
He did absolutely this. He poked life. He
questioned the conventional wisdom. Jobs, intrigued by eastern philosophy, had
explored the areas of intuition and spirituality. He used to believe that
everything in this world was some way connected. When Mike Mariccula, a former
Intel executive, wanted to invest a quarter million dollars in Apple (when the
company was still in Jobs parents’ garage), he said to him,
“It’s not a company we are building in here. It is practically spiritual. It’s about reviving a culture, dead gods you know”.
He didn’t believe in god but said he would like to believe in something like an afterlife during the latter part of his life (when death seemed nearer and more certain than ever). He tried to put his ideals and passions into his products. The reasons why iPhone doesn’t have an On/Off switch, why Apple moved into music and retail industries, why Jobs kept on trying to make the best animated film for years and years (Toy Story) when there were so many setbacks……….all could be found in his philosophy of life. It was not only the ultra-showmanship that pervaded his famous product launches, but a great inexplicable energy.
“It’s not a company we are building in here. It is practically spiritual. It’s about reviving a culture, dead gods you know”.
He didn’t believe in god but said he would like to believe in something like an afterlife during the latter part of his life (when death seemed nearer and more certain than ever). He tried to put his ideals and passions into his products. The reasons why iPhone doesn’t have an On/Off switch, why Apple moved into music and retail industries, why Jobs kept on trying to make the best animated film for years and years (Toy Story) when there were so many setbacks……….all could be found in his philosophy of life. It was not only the ultra-showmanship that pervaded his famous product launches, but a great inexplicable energy.
Talking about money- Jobs started taking a salary of
$1/- per year well before City Bank’s Vikram Pandit started doing it.
“That guy was worth $2million dollars when he was 22 (years), 20 million when he was 23, and 200 million when he was 24. How could money motivate him?”- questions one of the early employees at Apple and a famous technology journalist. Jobs was inspired by the then counterculture movement in the late 60s (during which he said to Steve Wozniak once showing the protestors “They think they are the revolutionaries-they are not, we are. We are true revolutionaries.”). There was always this rebel streak in Steve Jobs. When he needed a capable executive to look after the daily functioning of Apple, he consulted the then Pepsi-Cola President John Sculley. Sculley expressed his concerns about why he should leave such a big company to join a fledgling in Silicon Valley, Jobs replied in his own natural style-
“That guy was worth $2million dollars when he was 22 (years), 20 million when he was 23, and 200 million when he was 24. How could money motivate him?”- questions one of the early employees at Apple and a famous technology journalist. Jobs was inspired by the then counterculture movement in the late 60s (during which he said to Steve Wozniak once showing the protestors “They think they are the revolutionaries-they are not, we are. We are true revolutionaries.”). There was always this rebel streak in Steve Jobs. When he needed a capable executive to look after the daily functioning of Apple, he consulted the then Pepsi-Cola President John Sculley. Sculley expressed his concerns about why he should leave such a big company to join a fledgling in Silicon Valley, Jobs replied in his own natural style-
"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?"
Of course he did come, and joined Apple. But later,
after Jobs ‘got fired’ (that’s the
way he calls it, though he actually resigned after being limited by the Apple’s
board from daily managerial roles) from the company, he said to his employees
before leaving it for the last time-
“I am not wearing the
right kind of pants to run this company” (He was
wearing half jeans with bare foot at that point!).
Jobs was ruthless, mercurial, charismatic, demanding, and despotic……..so goes the list of the adjectives when it comes to his leadership style especially in his young age. One of his early employees who worked on Macintosh projects said- “Had he born in the right place and time, Jobs would have made a great French emperor” (referring to the well know French desire for blood baths!). But all the while he derived the best loyalty that any leader/manager can expect from his employees. He was charismatic and persuasive though temperamental.
Jobs was, for some part, guided and inspired by the
Silicon Valley legends-Bill Hewlett and David Packard. When he was in ninth
standard and needed a frequency counter device, Jobs searched the telephone
directory and called Hewlett and asked him for the missing parts. Intrigued by
the boy’s audacity, Hewlett had not only given him the required part but also
an internship at the HP. Jobs has continued this tradition of Silicon
Valley-guiding Mark Zukerberg of Facebook, and Larry Page of Google. In an
interview when asked for a suggestion for the entrepreneurs, he said-
“People say you got to do what you do. And the reason is-
after a point of time it gets so very hard…..so harder that unless you love it,
unless you have fun doing it, you give give-up. Because we are rational, who
would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it”
Jobs always considered him as an outsider in the
industry and showed a strong penchant for privacy once he learned of his life
threatening disease. He said that those who have never used psychedelics
including his wife, Laurene Powell, could never understand him completely. The
things that he values are drastically different from what an average man or a
CEO values. Once he mentioned that he would trade all his technology just for
an afternoon meet with Socrates.
What could be the biggest legacy of Steven Paul Jobs?
It could be subjective to the person who judges it- personal computers, mobile
technology, portable music, tablet computing, or animated motion pictures-but
to the humanity he gave an example. An example of an extraordinary life lived
with nothing but love at each moment.
“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important
tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,"
Jobs said during a Stanford commencement ceremony in 2005.
"Because
almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of
embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death,
leaving only what is truly important. 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"
