On Steve

It's unfortunate that many brilliant individuals are only so appreciated for their contributions posthumously. Even by some who use Apple's products and certainly from many who don't, you'd often hear things like "yeah, great products blah blah blah, but that guy's such an asshole." And then they tell you some hugely exaggerated story of how he fired someone for breathing the wrong way. Apparently Darth Vader never had such a temper. But I think there was and still is a profound lack of understanding of Steve Jobs' ability to do the insanely great things he did. And when you don't understand something, it's easy to be dismissive, to simplify, and to be harsh and cruel. People by nature are scared of things they fail to understand; not things they could learn if they studied, but things whose explanations are so elusive that they almost seem magical. It's why people get so mad at government. It's why people get into fights. It's why dying is frightening to those who don't understand—as Steve so aptly put it—that "death is very likely the single best invention of life".

Steve Jobs was no magician. He seemed that way to some because of his uncanny ability to produce remarkably successful products seemingly at will. And he presided over perhaps the greatest and most unlikely corporate turnaround we've ever seen or will likely ever see. At once on the brink of bankruptcy, Apple now stands as the #2 most valuable company in the world. Rather than smoke and mirrors, Steve was simply very observant, and devastatingly uncompromising. He knew what he wanted, and he was able to see how so many novel technologies would help him get it. When he built his products, he refused to settle for anything less than perfection, which is why even when Apple released something, he was already hard at work at what came next. This is what drove Steve Jobs. He wasn't driven by money or by market share or fame. He worked to make the best products he knew how, and for someone with as impossibly high standards as him, nothing was ever good enough. It is often remarked how the very best athletes are the ones who are never satisfied when they reach the top. They are the ones who are constantly trying to better themselves even when they're far beyond the pack. In sports we call those people legends. In business however, we usually call those people crazy.

Steve never went to business school, and it's probably just as well. His guidance of Apple went against much of conventional wisdom. The fact that he was able to save Apple by innovating his way out of their situation should prove to anyone that he was driven not by dollar signs or market share but by a desire to improve the world with amazing products and services. He refused to sacrifice his talented staff, and instead sharply re-focused them and produced the iMac. His plan worked, and while Jobs wouldn't shy away from being called crazy, his plan was anything but. Not to diminish the greatness of what he did, but it was no mistake that it happened.

So to talk about Steve's character or temper as a negative is to discount part of his incredible ability. Was he rude at times? Did he yell at people? Of course. But only when he felt that others weren't striving for the same goals he was. Only when others were compromising when he refused to. He got upset because he held people to the same impossible standards to which he held himself. It's an integral part of what allowed him to do what he did, not a proverbial fly in the ointment. As I'm sure those that knew him well would tell you, he was not a mean person, he just had impeccable standards and exquisite taste which he pursued relentlessly.

So it's really not any surprise that Steve was able to do the things he did at Apple, NeXT, and Pixar. When you understand something you cease to be frightened by it, and I think I've always understood him. Maybe that's why people call me a 'fanboy'—because I was never a doubter, even when things were bleak. But even though I understood Steve, that doesn't mean I still wasn't blown away by the products that his teams produced, as we all were. It just means that i wasn't surprised that he had done it, or that he would do it again.

I never met Steve so I don't have one of those stories about how he affected me personally with a clever line, but I did see him up close one time. It was after the 2000 Macworld Expo Keynote address where he officially announced that he was no longer the 'interim' CEO. I was on the show floor looking around and I saw him walking near me, not talking to anyone. I wasn't sure it was him at first—how could it be—but as I saw him casually walk in the other direction and then out of sight there could be no doubt. I was paralyzed for a moment, not believing that this guy was just hanging out in the middle of 500 people and nobody seemed to notice. Of course that was my chance, and I let it walk away.

When Steve retired from Apple I began writing a thank you letter to him. I wanted to thank him for bringing together so many bright and talented people and leading them to make some of the most amazing products this world has ever seen. I wanted to tell him of the Microsoft stock my grandmother bought me which I sold to finance the AAPL shares I bought in 2002 at $14 per share and against the better advice of my broker. But like Steve I wasn't in it for the money. I just felt if I was going to own some stock it should be a company in which I believe and whose products I use. That extremely modest investment has now grown to over 40 times its original value and someday will be used towards the purchase of my first home. I wanted to tell him about the meeting I had with my parents' accountant years ago, who told me how Apple would never recover and be bankrupt in less than a year. And I wanted to tell him how the first computer I ever used was an Apple ][+, and how as a very young child I was already writing my own programs and creating my own works of digital art. All because of Apple. All because of his vision and determination. I never got around to finishing that letter, and I regret that it's too late now for him to read it. The best I can do is to take his advice and live life to the fullest, stay hungry, and stay foolish.