"Steve created the only lifestyle brand in the tech industry. There are cars people are proud to have---Porsche, Ferrari, Prius---because what I drive says something about me. People feel the same way about Apple products."
I agree. It was always cool to have a Macintosh, my first computer, and a MacBook Air, now, or an iPod, or the iPhone (I wish), now an iPad....it set you apart from the masses, cooler, more hip, aesthetic and smart. From the Apple IIe, to the Macintosh, to Pixar, to the iMac, the Apple store, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, few have had the genius and fertile imagination, the demand for perfection, to create such a panoply of products as Steve Jobs. And as he said, he was out 'to change the world' and he did. The first wave of his genius began in a garage, where the Apple II was created, the personal computer, in 1977, later, the Macintosh, in 1984, until he was let go by Apple in 1990 over differences with the Board on how to run the company
In 2001, after successfully leading Pixar to great success with the movie TOY STORY, he returned to a floundering Apple just as the pundits were suggesting that people we turning away from the computer. Jobs , however, saw things 'differently', and launched 'a new grand strategy that would transform Apple---and with it the entire technology industry. The personal computer, instead of edging toward the sidelines, would become a 'a digital hub' that coordinated a variety of devices, from music players, to video recorders to cameras. You'd link all of these devices with your computer, and it would manage your music, pictures, video, text, and all aspects of what Jobs called your 'digital culture.'
Apple would no longer be just a computer company and the Macintosh, now iMac, would be reinvigorated by becoming the hub for an astounding array of new gadgets, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. All along, Jobs had been arguing for an integrated system, meaning Apple products were not compatible with other computers. This paid off powerfully with the introduction of the iPod; if you wanted to use it, download music from iTunes, or set up a play list, you needed a iMac, not a PC. As a result of this integrated system because of the introduction of the iPod, sales of the Mac went up as well. With sales of songs on iTunes, sales of the iPod went up. Brilliant! Later, he relented and allowed iTunes to work on PC's because his staff argued, it made good business sense. They would make more money and they did.
Admittedly, Jobs is hard if not impossible to like but easy to admire for his marketing skills and sense of the new, new thing. He's a combination of a Jimmy Swaggart, the bad boys of tennis, Connors and McEnroe, Buddha, a Hippie, rebel, tyrant, and genius, all in one man, at times mean, vindictive, unforgiving, at others, understanding, collaborative, and sentimental, seemingly bipolar with his moods, easily angered, screaming at employees, calling them stupid or idiots, or breaking down in tears when things don't go his way, like when he was let go by Apple in the late 1980's.
His name will always be attached to the motto 'Think Different,' which defines his life at Apple. Never satisfied with the status quo, Jobs was always looking ahead for the new thing, convinced that standing still was death, a true visionary, who unabashedly appropriated others ideas, calling them his own. Apple. however, was a true collaborative endeavour; Jobs gets all the PR, as he should, but his people came up with the products, many of the ideas, which Jobs was smart enough to put his stamp on, and marketed with genius.
His disloyalty is legendary; the gang who helped him build the first computer in his garage, lived with him on and off, put up with his craziness and moods, and worked with him till Apple went public, never received any share of Apple stock when it went public because Job's believed they were not creators, just worker bees. They were his best friends from high school, college, and after. Unbelievable but true. The irony is that because of his Eastern influences, things, accumulating stuff, even money, mattered little to him. For example, his early houses were mostly empty, a mattress on the floor of a million dollar home, mostly because he could not make up his mind as to the furniture he wanted. This continued till he finally settled down, got married, and had kids and had to furnish his home. He bought a modest home in an affluent Palo Alto neighbor, with neighbors from other tech companies, but it was a real neighborhood. No gated community, doors rarely locked, no security, kids playing in the streets and yards.
Obviously, he was very difficult to work for, yet he had a cult of admirers who put up with his antics, his moods, smart enough to 'let it go', knowing things would eventually settle down. He did lose some good people who could not put up with his tantrums though it never bothered him. He called anyone who wasn't on his team a Bozo. He believed that A people, who had a reputation for not being able to work together, were so categorized because they were often forced to work with B people, or Bozos. He made sure Apple hired A people, allowed them to work with other A people, and great things happened. Interesting idea. The key is being able to hire A people, something Jobs was good at.
His most important hire in his later years was his alto ego in some ways, Jony Ives, a young British designer who Jobs befriended when he came back to Apple as CEO in 1998. Ives was about ready to jump ship but when Jobs came back, he was charmed by him, like most, and became the designer for almost all of the products to come, the iMac, iPad, iPhone, and iPad. Jony and Steve were simpatico, similar tastes, believers in the importance of design, hating carelessness evident in many products, whether packaging, a computer, or a kitchen utensil. SIMPLIFY was their mantra because it hides complexity, making a product look simple and easy but that simplicity hid the complexity. "I always understood the beauty of things made by hand," said Jony. "I came to realize that what was really important was the care that was put into it. What I really despise is when I sense some carelessness in a product," the major reason why Apple was so successful!!!
One of the most interesting observations by Isaacson revolved around the Board of Apple, which oversee the running of companies like Apple. They are almost always made up of wealthy, successful CEO's, men who have run companies. And almost every one of them were critical of most of Job's innovations, fought against his implementing them, refused him financing, and only reluctantly let him begin models to a modest degree. Only when they were shown to be successful and game changing did they acquiesce. Any one who has ever worked at an institution knows what a Board is like, conservative, unaccustomed to change, stubborn, arrogant, condescending, thinking they know everything because they have been there
Jobs gets diagnosed with cancer in 2003 yet keeps working and innovating, stubbornly refusing to have surgery, which may have ultimately prolonged his life. No one knows for sure. And through most of the stages of his illness, he refused to acknowledge his sickness, lying about it. Apple went along with this and could have been sued for fraud, especially because Jobs was so closely identified with the products. In the next few years, as cancer reoccurs, he introduces one game changer after another, the lPhone, like a computer but the size of a phone, then the iPad, and finally the iCloud. When the iPhone was introduced, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer argued it was 'too expensive to be successful.' Well, by the end of 2011, Apple had sold 90 million iPhones. In April, 2009, Job gets a liver transplant in Tennessee because he was so far down the list in California and individuals are allowed to apply in other states. This gave Job's a few more years. One can imagine what kind of a patient he was. For example, when a nurse put on an oxygen mask to help him breathe, he ripped it off mumbling that he hated the design and refused to wear it.
Like most biographies, this does not have a happy ending. What lives, however, is Jobs' legacy, a passion for product excellence, an emphasis on design as well as engineering, a few mantras: simplify, focus (on two or three thing)s, and make them perfect. Combine these with a culture of collaboration and willingness to redesign and redo until it's right, and you get Apple products under Jobs. None of this could have happened with out his genius, mostly intuitive, his confidence in his insights, and his willingness to be swayed by others, albeit reluctantly. He did little inventing but; understood everything, where the world of technology was going, how to help people understand what they wanted. And he surrounded himself with great people, firing the bozos, until he got what he wanted. What would our institutions be like, Congress for example, if we fired all the bozos and just kept the A's...we probably would have a drastically downsized government just like the conservatives want.
Personally, like most great men, he was flawed--- Apple was his life, as were its products and his family, wife and children, suffered his neglect. They seemed to understand, however, that he loved them even though he rarely had time to show it. In interpersonal relations, he was outspoken, hurt people's feelings, knowingly, lacked empathy, could be a bore, but never backed down from saying what he thought or felt. He stood up to CEO's, Presidents, without fear. And because of his charisma, his persuasiveness and persistence, he usually got his way...the right way, from Apple II, to Mac, to iPod, to iPhones, to iPad, to iCloud. Isaacson suggests that history will place Jobs right up there with Edison and Ford. I agree. A great read.
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