“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”
– Steve Jobs, propositioning former Pepsi chief executive John Scully
And change the world, he did. After a lifetime of unparalleled achievement, Steven P. Jobs passed away on Wednesday October 5th, at age 56.
Jobs had been battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer since 2004, which led to two medical leaves of absence, including a liver transplant in 2009. This past August, Jobs stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple Inc., conceding that he could no longer meet his own high standards of excellence as the company’s leader.
Leaving behind a legacy of ingenious design and shrewd perfectionism, Jobs revolutionized the computer, music, mobile, marketing, and retail industries. The Apple II, for example, created in Jobs’ parent’s garage on funds from the sale of his VW van, sparked unprecedented growth for Apple Inc: sales leapt from $2 million in 1977 to $600 billion in 1981. It was the first mass-produced personal computer and introduced the first digital interface accessible by mouse.
Three years later, Apple unveiled its new, stylized Macintosh computer, through an iconic commercial based on George Orwell’s novel 1984. The ad aired just once, during the 1984 Super Bowl, and was almost immediately named advertisement of the decade by Ad Age.
The next year, Jobs took a brief hiatus from Apple and bought a start-up graphics and engineering company, from George Lucas. Once again proving his marketing and conceptual prowess, Jobs turned the flailing enterprise of Pixar Animation Studios into a multi-million dollar corporation, releasing classics such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.
Jobs returned to Apple in the early nineties, after an unsuccessful stint with NeXT Computers, for the comeback of the century. In 2001 he transformed the idea of mobile music with the iPod and in 2003, iTunes became the first online music store, with sales totaling over six billion songs. Coined by colleagues as his “reality distortion field,” Jobs had an incredible ability to shape consumer needs and generate an almost blinding loyalty for his products. In 2010, the iPad trampled all previous tablet production attempts, selling over 11 million units in a single year and paving the way for a new medium of portable information.
Simply put, Steve Jobs was a genius. He strove to produce the best possible products, fusing simplicity, functionality, and design through innovation unmatched by any other in the industry. He never apologized for his perfectionist standards, and he wasn’t afraid to break the rules.
To quote the mastermind himself, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Photo Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/business/steve-jobs-of-apple-dies-at-56.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/steve-jobs-apple-computer-co-founder-dies/2010/09/21/gIQAc14aOL_story_1.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/steve-jobs-apple-computer-co-founder-dies/2010/09/21/gIQAc14aOL_story_1.html