Can America Survive Without Steve Jobs?

Yesterday, I sat soberly watching tweets streaming down the screen. Surprised by tears streaming down my face.

"Who's that, daddy?"

"A great man."

"Did you know him?"

"No."

"Why are you crying?"

Yesterday's passing of Steve Jobs hit many of us in an unexpectedly powerful and emotional way. It feels greater than the passing of a man. It feels like an end of an era.

Steve represented the best of America. The underdog who stood bravely in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges and won. The consummate innovator. The rebel with a cause. The different thinker.

How could America be losing our edge when we have Apple?

As Steve leaves us, we are left to wonder if that American Dream will disappear with him.

If we let the papers determine our fate, it would be the obvious conclusion. The economy is gasping with no end in sight. Our schools are crap. Our government is inept. Our bankers are corrupt. We can't compete with the emerging powers in the world.

Maybe Steve's passing is a sign. Maybe we should just crawl into a hole and make giving up as painless as possible. Spend less. Risk less.

Bullshit.

Today, this morning, right fucking now, each and every one of us needs to stand up, look ourselves in the mirror and decide. Are we going to give up or are we going to be like Steve?

We the people need to take Steve's light as a beacon. We do have control over our destinies. When Apple fired Steve, it must have felt like the end of the world. He could have comforted himself with despondency. He could have pulled the plug.

But he didn't. He believed.

And because he believed, he followed his conviction to greatness. He's shown America the road back home.

As I sat in rain and traffic this morning, I listened to President Obama on the radio.

"I believe U.S. companies, U.S. workers, we can compete... I am absolutely confident that we can win... And a huge part of rebuilding this economy on a firm basis -- that's not just reliant on maxed-out credit cards... is dependent on us making things and selling things."

Make and sell products. How? Steve showed us exactly how. By thinking different, making better experiences and investing in quality.

So much of business is focused on cutting costs and avoiding risk. Avoiding risk does not create competitive advantage. Cutting costs does not create opportunity.

Should we allow the failure of a Solyndra to be an excuse for our government to stop investing in our future? To step off the path we need to be on? Is this how we'll survive?

I'm not taking that path. I'm following Steve. I'm going to think different. I choose to believe.

 

Follow Adam Kleinberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/adamkleinberg

Comments

[GirlInNYC]

11:43 PM on 10/09/2011

Very moving opening. I could barely hold the tears back when I heard. I heard in the lobby, and struggled in the elevator to hold back.

[jane q public7]

09:33 PM on 10/08/2011

Steve Jobs was one of many people who epitomize the fact that one DOES NOT need to be college-educated to invent something, to start a business or to be an expert in something--especially if you spent your life doing something--whatever it is. Experience matters. Read you American history.

[jsgaetano]

12:04 PM on 10/08/2011

Steve Jobs- America's monarch, and we didn't even know it.

[waitingforlifeafterbush]

11:34 AM on 10/08/2011

Oh, for pete's sake. What a ridiculous question and headline. And, I write this on my MacBook Pro. He was an extraordinary man with creative genius but, the much larger issues facing us on a daily basis, from how to put food on the table, pay the rent/mortage, cover our health care needs, etc is where our attentions and energy must lie.

Yes - it would be great to all strive to think and be different but too many of us are working as fast as we can just to get by.

I am sorry. I realize this was meant as a tribute but, personally, I actually think you trivialize the man and his death by this rather dramatic mini manifesto.

[inmyhumbleopinion]

06:32 PM on 10/07/2011

"As Steve leaves us, we are left to wonder if that American Dream will disappear with him."

Come now. I honor and respect the man too. But the rhetoric surrounding his death is getting a bit overblown, don't you think? He was no doubt a visionary and a leader. But a saint he's not.

I would venture to say there are any number of brilliant minds within these United States, particularly in academia, and some--like Jobs--are entrepreneurs. Are those who do what they love for the sake of it, or to teach our young, living any less of an American Dream than those who apply their brilliance to a marketable product?

I think in these days of corporate excesses run amok, perhaps we ought to take another look at what defines success.

[Adam Kleinberg]

10:31 AM on 10/08/2011

Of course there are other brilliant minds and other entrepreneurs. Im one of them (the entrepreneurs, not the brilliant minds). I don't disagree with you at all about redfining success in business. But I feel the rhetoric is rising so high precisely because of the timing of Steve's death. My point is not that the American Dream is over. My point is that the American Dream will be over if we don't believe in it and do the things that will bring that dream to life.

@adamkleinberg

[inmyhumbleopinion]

12:06 PM on 10/08/2011

"Of course there are other brilliant minds and other entreprene­urs. Im one of them."

Humility, sir, is what's sorely lacking in our business principles. If ego is the engine of capitalism, than I suggest humility and compassion are the glue that keeps our social fabric intact.

[markIDGCONNECT]

11:51 AM on 10/07/2011

This article must be a joke, surely?

[frank day]

05:28 PM on 10/07/2011

I should hope so.

[ChrisInYao]

09:09 PM on 10/06/2011

Like Steve Jobs mentioned to the effect that when facing his own mortality, the obstacles that inhibit us from our passions or pursuits and dreams just fall away. He has told the world his secret many times but it's up to us to create it where we are.
What I think 'to believe' means, at least one perspective is to have perseverance to see something through.

[redmaple]

07:23 PM on 10/06/2011

No! America is doomed. Steve was our savior and all is lost.

[Estevan Benson]

04:22 PM on 10/06/2011

I agree completely and have wondered the same thing. Many of us have a desire and hunger to start a business, create our own livelihoods and it's intimidating to see people like Steve Jobs almost make it look too easy. We need to nurture an American environment that can nurture more Steve Jobs'.

[jane q public7]

09:43 PM on 10/08/2011

Brainwashing your children to go into the equivalent of indentured slavery to get a college eduation and then become a secretary or one of those newly hired, $15/hr teachers.
Or, will the next "debacle" be subprime student loans and again indentured slavery.
This country has been here already. Our government couldn't get the doctors and others to pay their government-backed student loan back in the late '80s and 90s.
Business sticks to a business model that pays them, not a business model that is good for the United States.