Photo by Media CommonsSteve Jobs’ biography surprised me on two fronts.
I didn’t know the guy was so active in so many fields with so many people.
He co-founded Apple and pioneered graphical computer interfaces, and was directly involved in the talks that led to Disney buying Pixar. Jobs had conversations with Bill Clinton when the scandal broke, and offered advice to Obama on economic and education policies.
He was also a good friend of Bono.
The counterweight to such engaging interactions is that he was not very nice, especially in his youth. As he aged he changed from sporadic, antipathetic, and mean, to just plain antipathetic and mean. He progressed as a father from horrible to… still not particularly good.
However, as a designer he developed a focus in his later years that produced gadgets we all know now. He became better at recognizing and concentrating on the important, as well as compromising. An example of this is during his earlier years at Apple, when he insisted the machines that made their devices be repainted a certain color, ultimately leading to some malfunctions. He grew to be a tad more hands-off, at least when it came to some artists like John Lasseter.
His people skills were grossly unfiltered, but to some that’s what made him successful. His ruthlessness pushed his employees to develop his ideas and broke industry norms. He easily flew into screaming tantrums when something wasn’t right, but the terrified employee would either quit and strengthen the herd, or find a way to make it right.
He often referred to “B players” holding a company back.
What’s interesting is that what made Steve Jobs successful and iconic wasn’t a trade-skill. He wasn’t great at engineering or programming. He was great though, at recognizing a market, simplifying a consumer-technology interaction, and pitching an idea. His unorthodox diets and black turtlenecks became recognizable quirks, one of which has been blamed for his onset of cancer — I’m not sure which.
But at his simplest, he was a passionate minimalist, and he undoubtedly revolutionized the entire technology industry.
I won’t think of Steve Jobs as the infallible tech-drug-sex-turtle-god that I used to.
I obviously didn’t know much about him, but the man certainly had his flaws.
I recommend his biography however, because it is motivating to see someone do so much in a lifetime, and feeling challenged to accomplish just as much.
Without being a jerk.
Rest in peace Steve Jobs.
