Why We Love Steve Jobs – Even Though He Cost Me a Fortune!
- Aug 26, 2011
- admin
- Entrepreneur, Investing
Steve Jobs is the personification of the American Dream.
The dreamer. The fighter. The perfectionist. The success. The failure. The will to fight to comeback against all odds…
We all know the story by now: Young businessman partners with technology genius to start company in garage.
Right people, right place, right time.
And they don’t just succeed – they quite literally transform the world.
Company goes public. “Professional” managers brought in. The culture changes…
Suddenly, the creative force behind the company becomes Silicon Valley meat grinded by the Wall Street-Corporate P.R. machine led by John Scully.
The boy genius forced into “exile” while the adult “suits” took over. You’ve done great kid, but step aside and watch as the adults show you how it’s really done.
Of course he was angry. Who wouldn’t be? But as he learned the hard way, that’s the nature of the “game.” Business is war for money. All of the players know the rules. Those who don’t, have no idea what the “table” even looks like, never mind getting a seat there.
But he did his exile with dignity. He knew what time it was. That’s one of the reasons he’s so cool.
By the late 80’s/ early 90’s the baton was passed to the other boy genius, the one with no creativity.
Standing proudly on Steve’s shoulders, Bill Gates became the face of everything wholesome in the world of computing.
They even made a T.V. movie about them. I’m sure he got little comfort in the fact that Anthony Michael Hall was cast as a peevish Bill Gates.
Even worse, he was forced to watch from the sidelines as the company he loved struggled under the corporate-hack-in-chief. (Yes John, that’s how history will remember you. Take comfort in the fact that you know the rules of the game: to the victor goes the spoils.)
By the time America went Online Steve Jobs had become a Harvard Case Study: the biggest mistake in business history. Marrying software to hardware was akin to invading Russia in the winter.
But he never disappeared completely. It took a decade or so but at some point the press stopped mocking him (to this day, the press still wonders why he doesn’t talk to them unless he’s promoting a product). Bill Gates suddenly became the face of the evil empire…
Suddenly, there were reports that he was working on some kind of animation program…or movie software…the reports were never that specific. Maybe they didn’t understand it.
His comeback began when America first realized that Pixar was for real. It was cemented when the animation studio began releasing billion-dollar hit after billion-dollar hit – redefining the way Hollywood made animated movies.
By now the thinking had changed. Suddenly he was a genius again. Business reserves a special place for the rare species of entrepreneur who can succeed twice – in two different industries!
The IPO made him a billionaire again. A player…
And then just like that, seemingly out of nowhere, he was back at Apple. All those years later and he was still not over her.
Microsoft’s $150 million investment made it all seem surreal like an 80’s hair-band video.
Had Anthony Michael Hall become that powerful? Did Microsoft think that propping up Apple would get the Justice Department off their back? Was Steve Jobs just a prop in all this?
Even as things progressed I was skeptical. Colorful iMacs? Big Deal. I wouldn’t touch Apple stock with a ten-foot pole and I was proud of it.
What was he going to do? Take PC sales from 3% of households to 4%?
I thought he was crazy with love. On a wild weekend. Chasing a dream. I was so convinced I wrote about it in these pages. More than once.
But what a difference a decade makes: Today Apple competes with Exxon to hold the title of most valuable company in the world.
And I have proudly eaten my words (and then some).
What I didn’t realize at the time was that there are simply some people you never bet against. Ever. Especially one whose a visionary with the heart of champion…
One part Muhammad Ali, one part Walt Disney and 100% American.
I’d like to think there’s a little Steve Jobs in all of us. But only on days I let myself dream.