The Real Influence of Steve Jobs
As I read the story where Alvy Ray Smith talks about the starting of Pixar I realized just how much Steve Jobs mattered to Silicon Valley, and truly the world in general and where we are with tech.
I know, as much as anybody who hasn’t met him, that he was tyrannical at times. He could be the nicest normal guy (referencing the story where someone’s car broke down in front of Steve Jobs’ house and he was as nice and normal as can be). At work he often yelled at people to their face, stole their ideas, and otherwise portrayed the stereotypical “jerk” we are all supposed to hate nowadays. If anybody should have disclaimed, “it is by standing upon the shoulder of giants”, it should have been him. But we know he never did that. He wasn’t humble by any stretch of the imagination.
But influential he was. And reading this story, how Steve Jobs was literally the one person that saved Alvy Ray Smith’s new company that went on to become the Pixar we know and love today, I am just impressed by how much Steve Jobs means to our world today, even though it is coming upon the 10th anniversary of his death. You can say he wasn’t the brilliant mind that came up with all these ideas, that the iphone wasn’t the first smartphone, and you would be completely right. You can say that many ideas possibly could have come to fruition except for his short-sightedness and lack of ability to listen to other people, and you might be correct as well. But you cannot say that his influence was tremendous, the ability to berate people and yet somehow get what he wanted, to be able to coax performances out of others they didn’t even know they were capable of, to get breakthroughs thought impossible by all (and possibly by Steve as well).
And that’s what I fear for our world today. There are many people who are not perfect, some people who don’t make you feel good, and out of those are a few who are able to push you to do more than what you thought you were capable of. The world has turned into a place where everybody is supposed to be nice and friendly, criticisms don’t come more frequently than once a year (at the annual review, where you are required to have some criticisms as so there is something you can work to improve on), and the lack of competence is frequently overlooked. But most of us aren’t self-driven. Most of us aren’t willing to work 140 hours a week, to give up eating and sleeping and social visits with friends, to strive for a purpose. Some of us have such a purpose that would be commensurate with such dedication, but very few of us are willing to forego everything else in life.
And that is where people like Steve Jobs come in. They may not make us feel good. They actually may make us feel horrible. But in looking back, without them we never would have achieved what we did.
