Steve Jobs Legacy?

In the past two decades, technology has changed the way we do everything. Humans are more reliant on technology today than ever before. When most people think about companies that have been the leaders in innovation over the past 20 years they think Apple, Microsoft, and Sony. This is mainly due to the fact that they are huge companies today but one company stands out because it was co-founded by one of the most influential people of the 21st century. The whole story behind how Apple Inc. came to be is truly inspiring but behind it all was one man; Steve Jobs. I profoundly remember watching Apple’s 2005 keynote of the iPod Nano announcement, this was the first product I remember obsessing about until I saved up money to get it. Steve Jobs announced the iPod Nano that day and he made me feel like I needed it. He asks the question “ever wondered what this pocket’s for?”(iPod Keynote Intro , 1:45) and I remember me waiting intensely for him to reveal the latest iPod, he was a great public speaker. On October 5th, 2011 Steve Jobs passed away due to cancer, Jobs died at what many consider his prime since Apple Inc. was finally on the right path and every product release was finally a huge success. Many attribute Apple’s success to Steve Jobs since he was known as a visionary and a forward thinker but as much as he did carry the company, there were many other talented people helping him that won’t be remembered as he will be. It’s obvious that Steve Jobs has left a legacy but at a very large cost. Steve Jobs had to overcome lots of failures and obstacles to be able to help create a company that is known around the world, Apple.
Steve Jobs early life was full of failure and it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that he managed to succeed. Steve Jobs will largely be remembered for creating products that have influenced and changed millions of people's lives. The truth behind it all is that many other people created the products but the general public believes he was the mastermind behind everything. Steve Jobs legacy is quite interesting because those in the tech industry will remember him one way while the general public will remember him in a much different way. Steve Jobs had a very rough life during the start of his career. “Steve spent only one semester at Reed, then dropped out, as he was more interested in eastern philosophy, fruitarian diets, and LSD than in the classes he took”(Moisescot, Allaboutsteve). By today’s standards, Steve Jobs would be looked down upon and would have a very hard time finding a job. People, in general, don’t like college dropouts especially those who do illegal drugs. Steve Jobs had nothing clear in mind until he met Steve Wozniak. Steve Wozniak “had an aptitude for building working electronics from scratch”(Biography) and was working with motherboards when he met Jobs. Steve Jobs saw an opportunity in Wozniak's creations and decided to sell them, one thing led to another and Apple Computers was created. Steve Jobs main job was selling Wozniak’s creations and turning them for a profit. Steve Jobs was a great salesman, a very persuasive one that managed to almost always get his way. Steve Jobs has been accused of stealing ideas from different companies, more notably stealing ideas for the Macintosh from Xerox Parc. Steve Jobs even famously said “ Good artists copy; great artists copy”(Video, Good artists), many have criticized Jobs for taking ideas and getting away with them but in the end he took those ideas and made them better without copying someone else’s work.
As successful as Steve Jobs was, he failed a countless number of times but he was able to overcome them every single time. One of the most notable setbacks for Jobs was when he was fired from Apple which “came after a power struggle in which the board of directors sided with John Sculley, a former Pepsi executive who had been brought in to run the company” (Linn, NBC). During his time away from Apple, Jobs bought Pixar and started another computer company called NeXT. This is what has made Steve Jobs a legend in the tech world, he had the guts to start over and re-invest all the money he had made from Apple into giving success another shot. NeXT wasn’t much success but Jobs was able to sell the company to Apple since NeXT had some proprietary technology that Apple needed but they also needed Jobs back since the Apple had been going downhill since Steve Jobs was fired. On the other hand, Pixar was a huge success and it wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t for Jobs and his faith in investing money and a tiny company. Steve Jobs’ ability to surround himself with people who were more talented than himself. People that Jobs worked with always wanted to impress him because he was almost never satisfied with anyone's work, Jobs believed everyone could always do better than their best which caused his employees to bring out the best in themselves. One of the best stories, as told mentioned in Connie Guglielmo’s article on Forbes, is when Steve Jobs was revealing a new Apple Store mini design with white floors but he had a meltdown because the floors would get easily dirty. Steve made the designers spend all night cleaning the floors so they would see the problem first hand and then he switched the floors to Stone to avoid future problems. Steve dedicated his life to his work, he sometimes never ate nor slept if he had a problem he couldn’t solve. This type of perfection and vigor is what caused employees to learn from their mistakes and come up with better ideas to avoid problems with Jobs and impress him.
As vital as those events were to mold the man who introduced a phone that changed everything, people will only remember the man who was the face of Apple for the majority of the past decade a not the college dropout who stole others ideas. The man who people will remember is a man who had an incredible amount of passion for what he did. Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook, the iPhone, and the iPod, all of which have been purchased by hundreds of millions of people and have made their lives easier to an extent. Steve Jobs begins the 2007 iPhone keynote by saying “this is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years”, he always made sure the audience knew that he was excited too. I remember watching that keynote and being blown away by how different the iPhone was to my current phone and how Steve Jobs’ way of presenting made want the phone despite me being unable to afford it even in my dreams. I felt like maybe one day I will be able to afford the iPhone and that they I will have the best phone in the world, was it the best phone? That’s debatable but Jobs definitely made it seem like it was the best phone ever. It’s this optimism and leadership that has inspired people and made Apple Inc. what it is. Despite Steve Jobs’ early demise Apple is still trying to think differently by having people that study the ways Steve Jobs thought to be able to continue the streak of winning products and ideas (Inquisitr).  Steve Jobs will be remembered for being a visionary and for trying to make everyone’s lives easier by having envisioned technology as something simple that is friendly and approachable, Steve Jobs’ legacy will live on forever.

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