Steve Jobs: Mastermind Of Our Age?

So, yesterday we heard the sad news that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, and later Apple Inc had passed away.

I know there will be lots of controversy over whether his various products are good or bad, that’s not what this blog post is about. I’d like you to consider the man himself and what he achieved: I consider Steve Jobs to be a mastermind of our age, on a par with one of my great engineering heroes, Lord Armstrong.

A  college drop-out, Jobs openly admitted when he made the Commencement Address at Stanford in 2005, that “Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation”. So, he dropped out, how come he did so well for himself then? He is proof positive that you don’t need a degree to make it in this world! The one trait he exhibited, that he shares in common with everybody who ever really succeeeded can be summed up in one word: determination.

That determination changed the world as we know it. Look back to the founding of Apple Computer in 1976; what was the world like then? Our technology consisted of colour TVs that likely still had thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) in there somewhere, and no or at best cable-operated remote control. We were listening to 12″ vinyl records or cassette tapes – or even 8-track players at home or in the car but not on our person, because the humble Sony Walkman hadn’t been invented yet. We were taking photographs on our film cameras that we couldn’t share with friends even if we wanted to unless we’d already  been to the developer a day or two beforehand, and were all together in the same room. Contacting a friend meant talking on a phone attached to a wall by a cable or walking to the mailbox to send a letter or card!

How times have changed, and the corporation we now call Apple Inc is at the forefroont of all of those technologies headed for much of the time by Steve Jobs. In his time at Apple he oversaw many innovations and truly massive changes, one step at a time aided by his determination,  and an unswerving faith in his corporation’s products. He had a terrific vision of the future and used his determination to push through past the doubts, resistance to change and even criticism, sometimes from within his own corporation!

Just as Napoleon Hill explains to us in “Think And Grow Rich” that Henry Ford assembled a team of engineers to do something he didn’t know how to do himself; cast the engine block of a V8 motor in one piece so revolutionising engine design by eliminating warpage and oil leaks, a technique still used to this day, I don’t claim that Steve Jobs made all of the miraculous changes we’ve seen in modern electronic technology himself though he did oversee many of the massive advances by putting in place teams of software and hardware developers who could find a way, somehow, to make it all come together.

Steve Jobs. Your legacy lives on.

As usual, I’d love to see your comments below, feel free to tell me what you think!