Steve Jobs is no more. And even though his death was anticipated, it drew an overwhelming response from people all over the world. He was an icon for coming up with fabulous technological innovations to communication, music, animation and computers… his work helped and inspired millions of people in their day-to-day lives. As an innovator he will be remembered alongside the likes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. But that’s not all that there is to the life and work of Steve.
In spite of his human failings, eccentricities and failures in life and work he has left some enduring lessons for leaders, businesses and the common man anywhere around the world.
Steve’s Commencement Address at the Stanford University is priceless. It’s full of human wisdom coming from a business and technological guru. His decision to drop out of college was risky but his leaving his comfort zone propelled him to unimagined success. He followed his heart’s passion by taking a calligraphy course; something that looked vaguely connected to his aspirations of computer technology at that time and yet 10 years later he incorporated what he learnt into the fonts of Apple Computers and created history. So he proved that what you learn wholeheartedly from what life throws your way, never goes to waste.
For me, here is what stands out about this extraordinary man:
Success through Excellence: Steve knew that businesses excel ONLY when they serve customers to the best of their capability. Excellence remains the path to success. Any other way is bound to fail. He never relied on focus groups or research pre empting what people wanted. He instead directed all his energy at improving his products. He concentrated on delivering the finest solutions and knew that people could be willing to part with a fortune if it bought them the very best and reliable gadget. And this unflinching commitment lead him to concentrate on the processes rather than the results of his work. With processes constantly in a state of improvement, results naturally came. In the year of his death, Apple Inc. became the most valuable company on the planet with stock trading at $300 plus.
Ironically, numerous businesses today mostly focus on results as the benchmark to success. They either view the monetary gains at the bottom line as a sign of health or they aim to increase their customer base; both ways the focus remains vague on improving the product or service itself.
Years ago, I observed a global company’s focus group session campaign which aimed at pre empting what women really wanted in a hair care product. Women, who didn’t know that they were being observed, spoke about their aspirations. The aspirations were duly recorded and went into making the product packaging and advertisement claim. The ingredient that was eluded to be in the product was not there in actuality. What an awful dishonesty!
Steve was also paying attention to his customer’s ideas and needs and thinking of bringing something that they would want. But he was not plotting for easy gains. Said he, “I subscribe to a half-dozen Internet news services, and I get 300 emails a day, many from people I don’t know, hawking crazy ideas. And I’ve always paid close attention to the whispers around me.”
Failures – the Springboard to Success: Steve struggled through life on a personal and professional level. In his earlier years, it was said that he was full of arrogance. He found it difficult to listen to people. He was even sacked from the company he founded. Many of his ideas failed in the beginning. And yet he made his famous comeback by learning from his mistakes.
His colleagues vouch that he came back listening better. He started empathizing with his workforce. Steve acknowledged this change by saying in a 1998 interview: “When I have to take people out of their jobs, it’s harder for me now. Much harder. I do it because that’s my job. But when I look at people when this happens […] I think that person could be me coming home to tell my wife and kids that I just got laid off. Or that could be one of my kids in 20 years. I never took it so personally before.” This personal change is also documented in Mona Simpson’s A Regular Guy: basically, growing a family and facing the failure of his grandiose plans humbled him quite a bit.
To me, it shows Steve was allied to the story of his life. He was reading the successes and failures and using them to keep going ahead. Very few people are able to ally to their failures. And Steve did that remarkably well.
Loss and Death as Advisors: His grand termination from Apple was a great personal loss for Steve. It was like a stripping away of his identity for some time as he admitted he didn’t know what to do for a while. And yet he called it one of the best things that happened to him. And then he attained great eloquence at accepting the ultimate loss of his imminent death.
He said in the Stanford Address: “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. 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.”
…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. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.”
Need one say more to these enduring thoughts? Rest in peace Steve Jobs.
References:
- www.allaboutstevejobs.com;
- The Full Text of Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech by Jay Yarrow from www.articles.businessinsider.com