Steve Jobs: A Person with Vision

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is, by far, one of the technology industry’s most influential figures.


 Battling with a pancreatic cancer for over seven years, Jobs passed away on Thursday, the 5^th of October 2011, at the age of 56. His death triggered diverse reactions; his mourners reached China, where an estimated 35 million grieving microblogging messages pervaded Sina Weibo—China’s equivalent of Twitter. 


The American entrepreneur’s genius essentially consisted in his distinctive ability to manipulate technology to implant it in everyday life. 

 As such, Steve Jobs did not ‘invent’ anything. Like Shakespeare, the great dramatist of all times, Jobs made use of what was already there, within his reach, or tangible perhaps, and transformed it into a myriad of new, creative ways. In his own words:


Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something,  they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity.
                                                               – Steve Jobs, Wired, February, 1995

MP3 players, for instance, were not invented by Apple, nor were online music stores, but the 2001 launching of the iPod and the iTunes digital media store managed to capture generations of customers that record music companies thought were lost forever.

Mobile broadband, touch screens, online services—all had already existed for years, but the Californian brand is the one that succeeded in providing the average man with the whole package, with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the App Store in 2008 and the iPad in 2010.

Steve Jobs fashioned landmark products that have made industrial history, the way other great inventions have had over the centuries. Interestingly, he was a 21-year-old college dropout when he created Apple in 1976, together with his friend, Steve Wozniak.

 It is undeniable that Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of our era’s greatest inventors. In this inspirational video, Jobs speaks about he came to be, he draws on his own experiences and strives to give courage to everyone who is willing to listen. We hope that you will find it intriguing and perhaps, you will manage to put some of his insights and advice into good use.

 
Nikita Pisani at Muovo

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