The death of Steve Jobs... Part 1

Steve Jobs died last night. Many of us here in the UK woke up this morning to hear that one of the greatest visionaries we’ve known, passed away yesterday. I was actually still up at 1 am, when the first news came through of his death. Because there was so little “official” coverage initially, I thought it might be a really crap hoax, but only a few moments of checking showed it was the truth. It's odd how shell-shocked I felt when I heard, not having personally known the great man, and having issues with some of his policies (flash on iPads for example).

I know it doesn't make any difference to the family suffering his loss, and the company losing his leadership (and aura of amazingness), but he really did leave a legacy that affects all of us. I sit on the tube listening to my iPod and writing this on my iPad, in spite of being a PC fan, which tells you how far his legacy of innovation has spread. I know he didn't invent the portable music device, but he revolutionised it. He didnt invent the tablet, but he revolutionised it. Likewise with the smartphone. In the process of revolutionising these devices that have now become ubiquitous, he put them into all of our hands. As I look around I see those distinctive White earphones in many ears, I see so many people checking their email or playing games on their iPhones. I think that we are the iGeneration, because even if not all of us carry Apple products, we carry products that were inspired by those products (even if the inspiration was just a fear of losing lucrative market share)

I think beyond the mass of technology that is his legacy, Steve Jobs left us all something else. He left us a legacy of belief. Belief that we too could rise above any origins we have to give the world something amazing, whether it be new technology, or thoughtful movies that make you cry without saying a word. He may only have been here for 56 years, but he showed us that its not the conformists and the drones who change the world, it’s those people who stop and think and take a different course, even if it ends up in failure. There have and will continue to be many who are handed the title ‘the next steve jobs’, but honestly I think he’d be happier if he was the only steve jobs (The guy did have a bit of an ego…)

Instead of trying to be next him, I think he’d prefer us to be the next ‘us’. As he said in his commencement speech to Stanford in 2005, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” If you look at all the really amazing work that’s being done in our world, most of the time those breakthroughs and revolutions are being created by men & women who truly love their job. They wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work and they use everything they have to create the best ‘product’ or ‘idea’ they possibly can because they believe that much in what they do and they do great work because they love it.