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Jewish World Review March 27, 2012/ 4 Nissan, 5772 Steve Jobs: To Infinity and Beyond! By Dave Weinbaum
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Steve Jobs, American businessman,
artist and fabricator (he patented 317
inventions) died last year at the age of
56. His life was a roller coaster ride.
Jobs was full of paradox. He was
adopted yet favored abortion, a college
dropout perfectionist who was the
essence of persistence, druggy, Zen
Buddhist, a liberal who demanded his
own private jet, an Obama supporter
who balled him out for his business
policies.
Steve was a tyrant who would cry when attacked. He was a leader who bludgeoned his
own troops. The last 12 years of his life, he made a comeback for the ages, rising like the
mythical phoenix from the ashes.
Walter Isaacson's book about Jobs is a classic bio of an American icon. Isaacson was
given a free hand when Steve realized he was dying.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a different angle than business as a
crass dollar and cent enterprise mired deep in a short-term balance sheet or P&L
statements. Jobs combined the arts; eastern religion, product uniqueness and timing to
create a company -- watch it self-destruct and resurrect it as his last act of life.
I've been a customer of Kreis's restaurant, for six decades. It's one of the best known
and busiest steak houses in St. Louis. One waiter continued to impress on every single
visit. His forte was in his timing. The food, always great, was complimented by Len's
ability to have a the next course laid in front of you as he was removing the empty plate as
you were raising the fork to your mouth from the last bit of food.
I asked him, "Len, how do you get the food out of the kitchen with such precision?" He
answered, "In most restaurants the cooks run the place: Here, we run the cooks ."
That was pretty much Steve Jobs' mantra. He ran the engineers, marketing and sales to
meet and exceed the customers' needs.
But Jobs went further.
Not a believer in market research, Steve figured out what people wanted before they
wanted it. Jobs got the product in the hands of those customers just as they realized, like
petulant three-year-olds they had to have it!
In Jobs' second coming at Apple, he took a clueless disenchanted company that was six
months from bankruptcy and used all his experience and intuition to cajole Apple to
become the most valuable company on earth.
At $500 billion, Apple is worth more than Poland! Apple's board just designated a
dividend to enrich its stockholders by $100 billion. At one point in 1997, Apple's stock
sold for a little over three dollars. As of a few days ago, Apple topped $609 per
share. And for the last eight years Steve toiled while under excruciating pain from cancer.
The best story about Jobs was what happened after he was ousted by John Scully in
1985. Steve had brought John in to run the company he and Wozniak founded in his
garage.
A Window of opportunity won't open itself
Steve licked his wounds by forming a new company called NeXt. He developed
computers for the high-end business and the medical education market.
He was failing, losing half his $100 million fortune in the process. But along the way and
completely by chance, Jobs became familiar with the graphics department for George
Lucas of Star Wars fame. Lucas, going thru a messy divorce, put the department up for
sale. Jobs, intrigued by their talent, bought them for ten million dollars. It would prove to
be the best investment of his life.
This company had a shaky start as well. Jobs sold off part of it and laid off even more.
Almost in desperation this outfit began making commercials and movie shorts. Still not
making money, but winning some awards for its short films, Steve suggested they do some
full-length animated films. Jobs had Pixar for sale cheap, right up to the opening of its first
feature film, Toy Story. The rest is history. Jobs sold Pixar to Disney for 7.4 billion
dollars -- and a seat on Disney's board.
While products are cool, they all become obsolete. But movies are forever. Jobs'
legacy will live thru the ages as much or more from the flicks he made possible via his
gamble on Pixar more than anything else he did.
Steve did this all while simultaneously being wooed back to run a flailing Apple when in
1996, Apple bought NeXt for $429 million and 1.5 million in Apple stock.
Jobs' success puts him in league with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Eli Whitney, Da Vinci,
and any number of other artists who crossed boundaries to improve the world.
Steve Jobs put a dent in the universe.
As a famous toy astronaut once said, "To infinity and beyond!"
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JWR contributor Dave Weinbaum hosts DaveWeinbaum.com. He is a businessman, writer and part-time stand-up comic and resides in a Midwest red state. Comment by clicking here.
© 2011, Dave Weinbaum |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||||
