I am hesitant to add to the many fine words sure to be written about Steve Jobs and his life but here are my immediate thoughts.

Steve Jobs embodied the absolute best that is America.  He created a new idea in Spartan conditions that challenged the biggest established companies in the field.  He failed and rebounded and used his failures to advance even further.   He created a new industry with the iPod, iPhone and other devices.  He revolutionized the distribution of music, communication and information.  Business writer Edward DeBono used the term ‘Surpetition’  to describe the creation of new field as compared to the competition within a given field.

It is a credit to Steve Jobs as a business leader that Apple’s share price is up the day after he died.  He did not just create a company, he created a culture.

Jobs defied the academic business models. He created because he could.  He was not a slave to the market, he was its master.  He was not a linear thinker; he was willing to be foolish and willing to fail.  He was the epitome of the individual seeking his own dreams, and we all benefitted enormously from his ideas.  My iPad, iPod and iMacs are mine but the ideas are all his.  He was the Howard Rourk from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.

It is the Steve Jobs of the world that improve our lives and create real change.  Politicos talk about change, but it is the thinkers, creators, and the people who make things that bring the change we want and value.

print