Even after his death, Steve Jobs is Most Inspirational Leader and there is still a mad following for Steve and his ways. Technology enthusiasts across the globe follow him, but many aspiring leaders and CEOs impersonate him.
Steven Paul Jobs, co-founder of the iconic brand Apple was an entrepreneur of no match.
His life, his speeches, and his achievements have a lot for us to learn from. The man who took the tech world by storm and made it move to his gait was, is, and will always remain an icon like no other and will continue to inspire generations to come…
What makes him so famous -popular – followed, is an enigma. His passion for excellence, to create the best, to have an unprecedented approach to life. Belief in doing the work he loved, ability to rebound from failures, courage not to be trapped by Dogma, the bravery to follow his heart & intuition. Maybe All of this and more…
His life is a success story in itself, with no page less important. Taking cues from it, we jot a few important lessons for the crowd to follow to fix a “JOB”!!
Play is the highest form of research!
This saying from one great man proves to be true for another!! Albert Einstein, the man with the I.Q. Like no other said, this indeed applies to the childhood interests of Jobs. As a child, Jobs was always keen on instruments & gadgets and learned electronics tinkering from his dad, a mechanic.
What started as an unintentional curiosity led to a passion that made him bring the tech giant-‘Apple’ into existence. So, don’t hold back your child’s interest even with the smallest of things. You never know. There could be another ‘Jobs’ in the making in your backyard!! Jobs was always a step ahead of time and learned to read even before going to school with his mom, who worked as an accountant.
Simple living… high thinking!!
Hmmm… it looks like ‘i’- family is his dream personified. Jobs always aimed to bring up simple, classic, and timeless devices and yet could stand apart from the crowd. From Mac- books to iPhones, he’s been successful at devising electronics to vie for, and till date, no tech- biggie has been able to hamper the kind of brand- loyalty and status that Apple products enjoy globally.
This exceptional thought process and even more remarkable journey in the making of Apple products are what still keeps him alive long after he’s gone. Apple & ‘i’ will always be synonymous with you… Steve!! His ability to think apart from the crowd has made the public follow him. His ideas are no short of a revolution in the tech world and continue to remain so.
Failures are nothing but a step closer to Success
Steve Jobs is just another name from the list of people who faced failures and rejections before becoming iconic and themselves brands. The likes of Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, and a few others faced rejections and failures early in their life only to emerge as stalwarts like no other in their respective fields. Jobs was a college dropout, more by choice than by force. Moreover, Apple was not his first venture, and he took to several odd jobs before the idea of making it big struck him.
The world around us would not have been the same had these crusaders denied moving ahead despite the failures. So let not your spirits sink and your aspirations from soaring owing to a few rejections and failures because a hard-earned success lasts longer.
Partners in crime continue to be partners in Success
Jobs met Steve Wozniak when in school, and both of them bonded up well as partners in crime and would often prank school peers. Apart from their first names, both of them had a lot in common, including the dream to make it big. They both made their first big money with the ‘BLUEBOX’- an illegal venture meant to provide free long-distance calls.
After Jobs realized he could beat the existing biggies and make a place for him in the market, both he & Woz attended computer clubs where they enhanced their knowledge on building computers. After that, they start building apple computers in a garage. And the rest, as we all know…. is history!! Later, Jobs, Woz & Wayne teamed up and sold the idea of Apple I.
Spiritualism & Karma are not just big words
When Jobs dropped out of college in his late teenage days, he would spend his day couch surfing and eating free meals at the Hare Krishna temple. Inspired by the spiritualism at the Hare Krishna temple, Jobs moved to India to find a place in an ashram. Post spending a brief time at the ashrams, he returned home and started practicing psychedelics. He also practiced Zen Buddhism moving a step ahead in attaining spirituality. Even to his last days, Jobs was a firm believer in the concept of ‘Karma.’
He once quoted,” Remember that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you will die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” It looks like we too got to get a lesson or two from the ‘Bhagavad Geeta.’ The Lord’s preaching still holds well!!
The mantra to being super successful is “Love what you do.”
“If you are working on something exciting that you care about, you don’t have to be pushed. Every statement that Jobs made is like a charm that works to lift you up when you are really keen on following your dreams. After all the man spoke out of his own experience and his convictions were enough to the presence of any odds that came his way before they turned out to be fortunate, enough to be known as milestones in his success stories!! The vision pulls you.”
After he was fired by the CEO of Apple, Sculley, whom he had himself appointed, not many thought Apple would continue to be associated with him. But it was not long before Jobs was appointed the CEO of Apple himself and a long course of trial & error battles. Jobs continued to work till his last breath leaving behind the epitome of his work and passion. True Love, we call it!!
You’re never too old to explore new avenues
Neither did he stop exploring before bringing Apple into existence nor after that. After he was recklessly fired from Apple, Jobs didn’t take a halt. He kept moving ahead with the same pace and grace as ever before. He was just like his dreams…. ever going without a standstill. He tried his hands at being an Astronaut only to be rejected, considered starting a computer company in the Soviet Union, began NeXT computers, and bought George Lucas’ computer graphics, started Pixar animation with Toy Story, sold Pixar to Disney and NeXT to Apple and wins back the lost battle- resumes Apple as the CEO.
Nothing short of a fantasy tale, right? However, life was never a fantasy for Jobs as he persistently kept working towards his goal and getting back what always belonged to him. He didn’t believe in luck but in Karma and kept doing his part and let Karma do it. His high spirits defied the boundaries of age and health. His revolutionary tech ideas like the iMac, iPod, and later iPhone & iPad are the existing examples of his inventiveness.
Money is not the measure of Success
Jobs channelized his efforts towards making a difference, not only to himself but to the world at large. He’s among one those few remarkable entrepreneurs who radically altered the world. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me…going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me”, quoted Jobs to the Wall Street Journal in the early ’90s, where he was one of the successful entrepreneurs people looked up to. Apple still strives on principle Jobs left behind- Quality is more important than quality.
, After one home run is better than two doubles!! His definition of Design is perhaps the best and the most different one we’ve ever known- ‘Design is not what it looks like & feels like. Design is how it works.’ This is basically why iOS devices stand apart from the crowd of Android O.S., where a new device is launched almost every fortnight.
There was a time the world didn’t believe in him, and today he has a world of his believers. His vision, determination, and ideology of not making money a yardstick to measure success make him unforgettable and an icon to be remembered till eternity.
Believe in teamwork
A complete enterprise in himself, Jobs has never hesitated to share the credits of his success with his team. He believed that great things in business are never achieved alone. A group of people does them. He’s been a mentor, support, leader, benchmark, and fellow to all his colleagues.
He never made many friends but made a few honest ones. One knows that smooth seas never made an excellent Sailor and that a good mentor believes in making his team better and not keeping it easy for them. Working with Jobs is an accomplishment in itself, and learning from him is a lifetime experience.
No degree, no qualification can bring one satisfaction and honor as working with Jobs could. His teammates’ Testimonials are full of gratitude and respect for the great man, proving that Apple still adheres to the Vision Jobs foresaw. He’s been elemental in teaching his team to constantly strive for quality and settling for nothing less than the best.
Believe in yourself
Last but not least, Steve Jobs has given us all a lesson to believe in our dreams, to believe in ourselves. Follow your heart and your intuitions, and if you find them strong enough, work relentlessly towards it. Success is a relative concept, and one’s priorities determine whether success has been achieved or not.
It may either be struggling all your life to make money and leaving behind material things or working to make a difference to the world and staying alive forever in the hearts of innumerable patrons, like Jobs.
Choosing to follow someone or creating followers for yourself is completely what making a difference is all about. Jobs chose the latter path, and he indeed treads the course successfully. Most stories of success that seem to have happened overnight have an extended parody of struggle behind it.
Steve Jobs, the man, and his life saga is full of inspirational thoughts and continues to wander through our minds years after he’s gone. Such was the impact of this iconic personality. He’s left behind a lot of lessons not to be found in any management books or bound by any classroom. It’s just a matter of finding your passion and tracing it. If you still couldn’t figure out what drives you, in the words of Steve Jobs, ”if you haven’t found it yet, KEEP LOOKING!!!”
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
12 Steve Jobs Quotes on Life-Work – Innovation.
