Steve Jobs
So, Steve Jobs has gone to the eternal iCloud. His family, people who knew him, worked with him and met him will have a proper insight into what made him an icon who straddled the centuries. Being none of those it would be slightly ludicrous to pretend to have a significant opinion about the man. But notwithstanding his achievements at Apple, he was a medical miracle. To have been saddled with the double whammy of pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant and throughout it all to have remained at the helm of what, for a few hours at least, was the world’s most valuable company is utterly astonishing.
It’s probably misinterpreting his role at Apple to suggest that his was a ‘benign dictatorship’ but there was never any confusion as to who was in charge and where the drive and vision came from. There can’t be many households that don’t either host an Apple product or hanker after one, and you can’t say that about many brands.
I think I read it in William Goldman’s book Adventures in the Screentrade and I don’t know if Goldman said it or was quoting someone else but ‘they don’t erect statues to committees’ is a truism that is poignantly relevant to Steve Jobs. Companies like Apple thrive on a singular vision and the energy to see it come to fruition. Steve Jobs was so uncompromising that he never grew out of tucking his sweater inside his jeans and I don’t think I ever saw him wearing anything other than jeans, sweater and sneakers. He knew what he wanted and most of the time it was what we wanted too, even though he knew that long before we did.
There can’t be many people whose legacy is to have left the world a better place. But Steve Jobs did.