The
social media has never grieved like this before. Within 24 hours of
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ death, 2 million tweets mentioning his name
were posted and 11,000 news articles were written on him. The world
truly acknowledged the passing away of the greatest innovator of our
time. The scale of reactions from across the globe was unprecedented for
a businessman and made many wonder how Jobs had impacted people. Part
of the answer came from Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin group, who
tweeted:
"So many people…. related to his (Jobs) life story:
adoptees, college dropouts, struggling entrepreneurs, ousted business
leaders figuring out how to make a difference in the world and people
fighting debilitating illness.’’
Very true. In fact, a lot of inspirations can be drawn from Steve Jobs life.
You go down only to come up:
He found what he loved to do early in life. He had his own company by
20, became a multi-millionaire by 25 and then at the age of 30 (in 1984)
he was fired from Apple Inc.
"I really didn’t know what to do
for a few months….I was a very public failure, and I even thought of
running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me –
I still loved what I did….And so I decided to start over,’’ Jobs once
said recalling those tough days.
Over the next five years he
started two companies: Pixar and NeXT. Pixar created the world’s first
computer animated film – Toy Story. He eventually sold Pixar to Disney
and today it's one of the leading animation studios in the world. In
1996 Apple, which was floundering at that time, acquired NeXT. The
technology Jobs had developed at NeXT is currently powering the
breakthrough devices Apple has since launched, including the iPod, iPad
and the iPhone. Apple’s acquisition of NeXT also brought Jobs back into
the company he founded and soon became its CEO. Over the next decade he
etched one of the greatest comebacks in the corporate history when he
transformed Apple into one of the most valuable companies in the world.
"..it
turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could
have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced
by the lightness of being a beginner again…It freed me to enter one of
the most creative periods of my life,’’ Jobs said. Had Jobs lost his
focus, he would not have returned to turnaround Apple and in fact, bulk
of the wealth he has left for his family was created in that period. His
shares in Disney which he got as a sale consideration for Pixar is
today worth $ 4.4 billion and is more than double that of the value of
his shares in Apple which stands at $ 2.1 billion.
Live your life:
Jobs always lived his life his way – be it dropping out of college or
going to India in search of spiritualism or becoming a Buddhist. When he
learnt at the age of 27 that he was an adoptee, he employed private
detectives to trace his biological parents. He met with his mother and
sister but chose not to meet his biological father till the end. He even
chose whom he wanted to bid farewell to days before his death. He met a
few of his close friends and declined to meet many who wanted to see
him for one last time. While delivering the Commencement address at
Stanford University in June 2005, by which time he had been diagnosed as
suffering from pancreatic cancer, he advised the students saying
"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 other’s opinion 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.’’
The customer really is the king:
This is the most clichéd phrase today and every businessman swears by
it. But Steve Jobs adhered to it to perfection. The products that he
dreamt of and delivered were a mix of liberal arts and technology.
"Technology alone is not enough. Its technology married with liberal
arts, married with humanities that yield the results that make our heart
sing,’’ he said. Not surprising that Apple products are easy to use –
for the first time and ever after. Did you know most of the Apple
products do not come with (or require) an elaborate operation manual?
Products that Jobs designed can fail too:
While many of his innovations have swept the world off its feet, there
have been many products that he launched that failed. Lisa the first
commercially produced computer with graphical interface, failed as it
was too costly. Same with the NeXT computer that he designed after he
was fired from Apple. And more recently in 2007 he launched Apple TV
which failed for many reasons.
Pay attention to detail:
A CEO sets the vision and his team delivers. Visionary Jobs was did not
abide by this management mantra. He focused on details. Sometimes to a
level which in unbelievable as Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice-president of
engineering, realised one Sunday morning in January 2008. Jobs called
him to say that he was not happy with the Google icon on the iPhone.
"The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong,’’ Jobs texted Vic.
"It
was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even
shades of yellow. On a Sunday,’’ Vic recalled after Jobs’ death.
Passion, not education, is the key to success:
While giving the commencement address at Stanford UniversityJobs joked
that "this is the closest I’ve gotten to a college graduation." Like
his arch rival and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Jobs never graduated
from college. But that has not prevented him from achieving what he set
out to do. People who have worked with him attribute his success to
the passion he had for making products that wow Apple’s customers. He
thought ahead for them and delivered products that transformed their
lives. His secret in his own words: "you have got to find what you love.
And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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. And, like any great relationship, it just gets
better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking unltil you find
it. Don't settle.'' His other famous advice to youngsters: Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
And finally, Never give up: Only 4
per cent of patients with pancreatic cancer are expected to survive for
five years. Most do not last for more than five months. Jobs’ doctors
gave him three to six months. But he fought the disease for seven long
years. He even told friends who called on him during his last days that
he had started a new drug regime and there was hope. While speaking at
Stanford he said "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 escaped from 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…’’. The man who transformed the life of many through
his classy and user friendly products decided to embrace that change
too.
