When I heard today that Steve Jobs was resigning, I noticed tears welling up in my eyes. It is not that Steve was the "greatest CEO of all time" as MSNBC says he was. It was not that he resurrected a company that was once in danger of going under and worth only $10 million -- later to become the most valued company in the United States. It was not that Steve knew how to run a corporation correctly (it has a market capitalization of $400 billion and has $78 billion in cash, not debt.)
And it was not that Steve had a sense of what his employees needed and that he was empathic, gave them a luxurious campus, benefits, a gourmet cafeteria, and asked no more of them than to give their all and to be as creative as they could.
No, it boils down to something far simpler. Steve Jobs made me happy!
He made me excited about my world. He made me say "Wow" a thousand times: the first time I printed a document on a laser printer; the first time I played a video game; the first time I saw an animated feature with such realism and detail I couldn't believe my eyes; the first time I took my Mac Classic and actually worked on a computer; the first time I ever pasted a photo into a document and saved it as a PDF; the first time I ever downloaded a jazz tune and played it on my computer; the first time I ever watched a movie on my computer.
I can't list the number of times Steve Jobs' creativity, genius, spirit, and intelligence energized my life. He was one of America's most distinguished college dropouts (He left Reed College in his freshman year).
If America is about becoming your potential and becoming all that you really are, Steve Jobs -- without a BA and merely following his "bliss" -- exemplifies the essence of being an American: to be all that you can be, without class, without pedigree, without a string of degrees or credentials trailing behind you.
Just be the best that you can at what you do, and all will follow. That is the message of America. That is Steve Jobs!
Most recently, he gave me the iPad, and I can read books, underline them, leave notes in the margins, and retrieve information I've underlined in an instant. And my books cost half what the hard cover versions used to be.
He gave me a doorway into my own future and my own creativity. Without Steve Jobs, I wouldn't be what I myself have become. How many of us can say that?
I salute that he never appeared in suit and tie. I salute that he represented people, life, living, play, genius, and creativity, not corporate greed, ritual, atomization, custom, convention, conformity, and the status quo.
Steve Jobs was the 60s incarnate. He was everything that the 60s was about, and he touched my life as he touched millions of lives across this planet.
If there were a Nobel prize for corporate geniuses, Steve Jobs would be invited to Oslo, and I would be glued to my television to hear every word he had to say.
I wish him good health and hope he can survive his greatest challenge that lies ahead.
Patrick Garratt: Stop Panicking: Steve Jobs' Resignation is a Good Thing, Both for Apple and the man
Fauzia Burke: Steve Jobs Makes Me Better
He did not revolutionize anything and was helped enormously by the flaws in the Leviathan that was Microsoft while dissing anyone who pointed out such at Apple.
Few find him warm and personable, but nobody can say he isn't an absolutely brilliant marketer.
He hardly epitomizes the 60s - Clinton, Bush, Obama, Romney, et al do that for the business side - but you can pray to him as a guru if you must.
Better yet, get counselling.
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Most of that empathy is now extended to employees in China. Apple now has more money than the US. Recent analysis has shown that had Apple kept the production of their products in the US instead of sending it to China, they still would have made 50% profit, added millions to this economy and employed around 140,000 American workers. Greed.
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I just hope Apple keeps up its quality.
It would be great if he could use it in a constructive way
better him than someone else posthumously deciding!
He would probably be just as creative
in using his money in a creative way
to infecting and inspiring people to greatness
It could have even far more impact than Apple has had.
Thank you Steve Jobs. It would have been a very different life without your determination.
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