In 1997, Apple, pioneer of the computing industry, was floundering. It turned to its co-founder, Steve Jobs for direction and impetus, and the rest, as they say is history.
Jobs took the company back to its roots in innovation, building tools that help people change the world.
Jobs was instrumental in championing the vision of the personal computer when computers were considered useful only for governments and large businesses. Not only did he succeed in realizing his vision back then through the Apple II, Jobs went on to define the post-PC era with the introduction of mobile computing devices. Apple’s revival post-1997 is an amazing and insanely great story, to borrow some of the words that he frequently used to describe his company’s products.
Over three decades, Jobs transformed several multi-billion dollar industries on a global scale through his work at Apple and Pixar Animation Studios. But Steve Jobs will not just go down in history as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.
The message of his life is deeper. In Pixar’s 2007 animation film Ratatouille, Chef Gusteau used to say that anyone can cook. Gusteau was a renowned chef in Paris who invited much derision from others in his community for believing that anybody could become a great cook.
Steve Jobs showed that anyone can build. With passion, focus and a commitment to innovate, entrepreneurs can beat the odds and build great companies. There’s tons to learn from Steve Jobs’s work for anybody trying to solve technological problems in a business context – in this sense, Jobs is a Dronacharya to countless entrepreneurs worldwide.
Silicon Valley has seen dozens of luminaries come and go over the decades, but the name and work of Steve Jobs shines the brightest in this august gallery of the crazy ones. The man has left us – but his legend will live on for centuries to come.