I don’t own an iPhone. I don’t have an iPad. I don’t have a Mac and I disagree with the idea that your customers can be told what is best for them. Yet the fundamental ideas and advice that Steve Jobs gave to the world influenced my approach to life. My tribute and appreciation to an extraordinary man who had to leave life too early, but whose spirit will live on for the ages.
If you have read my articles here on ConceivablyTech, over at my previous website TGDaily and the columns that are published by Tom’s Hardware, then you know that I am very critical of Apple’s products, and many of the ideas that seem to distort the way we think about technology and our life in general. I enjoy arguing with people we like to call Apple fanatics, or, to a lesser degree, Apple followers in a comparison of the Apple “cult” to religion. Most recently, there have been debates over how new the iPhone 4S really is and if you have been in such discussions as well, then you know that there is no way to find a compromise between those who enthusiastically follow Apple and those who don’t.
A couple days ago, I offered my two cents on Tim Cook’s presentation performance and the fact that he really did not do too well. While researching and asking colleagues for their opinion, there was this one note that kept popping up: “I wonder how Steve Jobs is doing?” I cannot help but think that Tim Cook had the same question on his mind. We criticized his subtle presentation, but he knew what many of us may have anticipated, but did not think of. Steve Jobs was dying and the world was about to lose someone who touched the lives of millions, even the lives of those who never owned an Apple product. As much as I disagreed with him, I closely listened to what he said, often in simple words that carried more meaning than we may have realized at first.
Your time is limited
The only time I had the privilege of actually meeting Steve Jobs and exchanging a few words was back in 1999, at a presentation during which he promoted Apple’s latest Macs and their processors in a surrealistic keynote scenario. He trashed Intel’s Xeon CPUs and received standing ovations for it. He corrected a mistake in which Apple had overslept the CD-burner era by introducing a “super drive,” a DVD burner. He received standing ovations as well. It was the kind of product presentation during which you look around and wonder if you are dreaming. The few sentences we exchanged later had no significance, but I noticed that Jobs had an unreal passion for what he did. His eyes lit up when he talked about the Mac; he smiled and commented on the latest Macs as if they were set on a mission to save the world.
Six years later, I had left Silicon Valley and restarted my career and I listened to his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech. I remembered it yesterday and listened to it again. There are not just quotes that we are sure to hear over the next few months, many, many times, but also priceless advice that did not grow from lecture, but from the life experiences Jobs had made. From the advice to connecting the dots in the past to the present, Jobs talked about death and its role as “the single best invention of life.” It helps you “clear out the old,” he said. He told students to find what they love, to keep looking and not settle. He told them not to lose faith in tough times, and said that “your time is limited, so don’t live wasting someone else’s life.”
Every time you lose something or someone who truly matters, we tend to realize their importance. Our time is limited and it is up to us to decide how we use our time. Steve Jobs is a bright example how to make use of the limited time we have. He lived his dream, he made use of the time he had, to the very last day.
Your passion is your guide
It has been fascinating to see Apple define computers others persistently wanted to copy, how it revolutionized an entire wireless phone industry in a snap. Somehow, it all began with the iPod in 2001, which Apple gave to the media as a Beta product (that still sits in my office with the original CDs that Apple gave journalists to load their players with legal music). The iPod was never threatened by rivals and even Microsoft gave up its “long haul” effort, the Zune, as any plain MP3 player sits in a shrinking market today. A few years ago, I came across a video that shows Steve Jobs on stage at the 1997 WWDC event in which he was insulted by someone in the audience and is told that he has no idea what he is doing.
Besides the question who that insulting gentleman was, this video carries a few seconds of information that was largely ignored by the outside IT world at the time, and is still largely ignored today. Yet, it is the very basic concept of Apple’s success: You don’t design a product based on technology and bend the experience around it. You think of the experience and then bend the technology around it to make it work. Every single Apple product today is based on this thought and you could even argue that there was no iPhone 5, because the technology is not available that Apple would need to make the experience idea of an iPhone 5 work.
The thought of innovating the experience first and technology second has turned into a passion that is second to none in the industry and the type of passion we so often miss entirely in our lives. Last year, Steve Jobs appeared on a quarterly earnings conference call and commented on companies trying to duplicate the iPad, and offered his thoughts why they cannot succeed. He commented on form factor, price, ecosystem, and the platform. It was all the advice tablet makers needed to avoid costly mistakes or to build a powerful rival, but he was ignored. Had HP listened, there would have been no Touchpad, or a different kind of Touchpad that is vastly better than what we got. His appearance was not a cold-hearted, rehearsed business presentation. It was dedicated lecture of how Apple designs products and brings them to life. There was pride and passion for the iPad. Pride we rarely see anymore.
Famed computer scientist Alan Kay once told me that Jobs showed him the iPhone, to which Kay commented that Jobs could “rule the world” if he built it in a 10-inch form factor. Jobs was humble enough to take that advice and created a product based on his philosophy that experience is what matters. Today, we know that the iPad has changed the world and is likely to rule the idea of how computers should look for some time to come. When Jobs described the iPad as “magical”, it was not about the product itself. Magic was the tool that connected a vision with a product that realized it.
Attention to detail
I have a tough time agreeing to claims that Steve Jobs (and Steve Jobs himself) invented actual products. The MP3 player was around before the iPod came. We have had cell phones before the iPhone and the idea for a tablet has been around for more than 30 years. What made Apple and Jobs different is the attention to detail to take a broken idea and turn it into a vision that makes sense. The iPod was not the first music player, but the first you really wanted to carry around and show off, including a music library that was easy to understand. The iPhone answered a decade-old question how a cell phone could become a compelling mobile Internet device. The iPad packaged a platform idea with previous ideas to deliver an ultra-portable computer that you really wanted to use.
While experience was the guide of the vision for each product, the dedication to design high-quality products that Jobs could “recommend to family members” polished the original idea. People tend to pay attention to small details, small pieces of design and technology that highlight the love and passion for a product: Jobs’ passion can be seen in those details that live on in every Mac, every iPod, every iPhone and iPad. There are enough products that are designed by the 80/20 premise where 80% of the goal is good enough and the remaining 20% are too expensive to achieve. Jobs never settled for that and was rewarded with an environment that enabled him to live his dream.
In his 2005 Stanford speech, Jobs mentioned the hope to live for “many more decades”, which turned out to be a wish he was not granted. It is tragic that Jobs, who dedicated so much time and his passion to Apple, had only a little over a month’s time to prepare for his death. It was the second time he had to do this and the pain to go through this process is unimaginable. However, given his achievements, his approach and passion for what he did, there is a good chance that Jobs was at peace with himself and the world he left behind. Even if we believe that people like Steve Jobs are not supposed to die.
Wolfgang Gruener in Business on October 06
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