There’s a good chance you’re reading this on something he helped create. There’s a good chance that he’s the only former CEO of any electronic brand whose name you know. There’s no chance that you don’t know his name.
But you may or may not know the odd, perhaps essential mistakes the late Steve Jobs (1955-2011) made through his life as programmer, inventor, CEO and an inspiration to a world dependent on technology. Here’s a skimming list of a few.
"Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or, do you want to come with me and change the world?"
– Words that were Jobs’ pitch to then PepsiCo Vice-President, John Sculley. Still a young executive, Jobs dug himself an early, albeit temporary grave, as in 1985, he was asked to resign, by Apple’s board of directors. All of this, over a stretched disagreement against Sculley regards subsidising the price of the Mackintosh. While Sculley does not regret his stand, in recent interviews, he does mention wishing they had worked around the problem instead of having to fire Jobs. Nonetheless, he adds, “Steve in 1985 was not the same as the Steve in 1997. By the time he came back, he was a much more matured and experienced executive.”
Would the world of technology have changed before it actually did? We shall never know.
"I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
When Eric Schmidt was on Apple’s board with Steve Jobs, and because of his association right from a learning session for programmers they had met at, Jobs was aware of Schmidt’s responsibilities as Google Chairman. But he hadn’t expected his company Google to be developing an OS that felt to Jobs, and a large population of the tech-using world, a copy of the iOS. When Google launched their Android phone interfaces in the same year, only a few months after the very first iPhone was launched, tempers flared, fingers were pointed and how.
To this day, we wonder if Android would have achieved its popular status had Eric Schmidt not been privy to the iOS structures.
"You've tarnished Apple's reputation. You should hate each other for having let each other down."
The one consistent observation by those who have worked closely, and for long with Steve Jobs, was that he was a difficult man to work with. From his first employer, Nolan Bushnell who described him as ‘unpleasant’, to his colleagues that worked with him until his resignation as CEO, there have always been talks and whispers about his condescending approach to anyone less visionary, for mistakes, errors, and less. Jobs has even been called tyrannical. His approach to work was intense, and less than ideal – long relentless hours that gave the world legendary products, but an attitude that made his peers and employees a bitter taste in the mouth.
The next time you find your boss irksome, know that perhaps you are better off than some Apple employees.
We can’t place a finger on it, but we’ll summarise by saying, that genius does come at a price.
Jobs has turn the world toward a faster track of intuitional technology, and his work inspires companies, small and large, to innovate more. Mistakes on this journey to greatness are inevitable, and perhaps essential, and with Apple, Pixar and more of his creations embedded boldly into our lives, let’s admit – we’re glad he made them!
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