I’m an avid Apple products user and have been for years. Steve Jobs is one of my personal heroes. I’m not an engineer or even really all that technically minded when it comes to invention or electronics. Break open my iPad and I can’t tell you what circuit does what or which wire powers which.
On the other hand, it turns out Jobs wasn’t like that either. He was a visionary, a maverick, and someone who understood the importance of design and the user experience. Jobs changed the world by insisting that electronic gadgets not only function well, but look good and be easy to use too.
While many are mourning his departure and talking about his vision and what he brought to the world, I remember Jobs as the guy who stood on stage with big, bold graphics behind him, and said “This is what we’re doing. You don’t have to admit that you like it, but I know that, deep down, you do.”
It wasn’t arrogance that powered this attitude he projected. It was truth. He knew how great the stuff he was overseeing and designing was. He knew the rest of the world would see that too. His genius wasn’t in the boardroom or the laboratory. It was in the understanding that if he, Steve Jobs, personally thought a product was great.. so would enough other people that it would become a best seller.
This wasn’t anything special that Jobs possessed. His genius was in understanding that core idea and running with it. Something most other CEOs would never dream of. By embracing the idea that gadgets and computers were to be made for PEOPLE to use, not robots or automatons who spend the day calculating spreadsheets and compiling data, Jobs created markets for his products instead of trying to compete.
Steve Jobs thought about people when he designed products and because of that, he changed the world in a big way. That’s why he’s my hero.
