While there are many things worth celebrating of Steve Jobs’ life, the greatest gift Steve gave us is a way to design our own lives.
Steve Jobs was known for being a design god who sweated experience, and pixels and, well, everything. “Design,” he once said, “is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it’s how it really works. You have to grok what it is all about.”
In our society, thinking for ourselves is not highly valued. Our education model was designed with the 19th century more than the 21st century in mind. It reinforces fitting in and suppresses much of the natural creativity we start with. That’s how we go from drawing and acting and make-believe to PowerPoint. If we allow creativity at all, it is limited to arts and sports. “Real work” has us looking like a Dilbert character. Between the pressures of our teachers, parents, and ultimately co-workers, we often give up any search for personal meaning as we aim to belong to a tribe. After a while, we may not even believe we have something unique to offer. Rather than figure out what we are each about, far too many of us live within the boxes others define.
But when we define ourselves by what others want, we are trying to kiss a moving butt. To live in a box defined by someone else is to deny our uniqueness. Each of us is standing in a spot no one else occupies. That unique perspective is born of our accumulated experience, perspective and skills, and our vision. When we deny these things, we deny that which only we can bring to the situation, our onlyness. And that is surely not the way the world is made better.
I’m reminded of the ad copy Steve initiated when he returned to Apple:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. (Apple Inc.)
The problem with being a rebel, a misfit, a troublemaker is that the masses will not be cheering you on. Rosa Parks might be a heroine today, but at the time, she lost her job. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr both had huge dissension within their own communities. It took Jobs years to come up with a turnaround strategy that showed what Apple could do. People forget the years between 1996-2001 where much of the market called him more insane, than insanely great.
But he knew that his journey was to apply what only he could — from his meticulous design methodology, to reimagining computing, to building a different type of company. He realized — and showed us — that our real job is not to conform to what others think. Instead, we need to recognize that our life’s goal is to find our own unique way in the world, to find the way that we move from being kiss-ass to being kick-ass.
That is the fundamental gift of Steve Jobs. His insane greatness was to find his own journey and to live his life this way. He didn’t worry about being weird; he only wanted to be himself.
I have been in love with Apple products since my first Apple II, which I practically bought with quarters and nickels earned in small increments. I grew up picking apricots on the property where Apple buildings now stand. I worked at Apple during the “dark days,” as alumni refer to the years between Steve Jobs’ departure and then his much-needed return. He was competitive, sure, but mostly against himself. And that, too, is a lesson for us. It has been an honor to use his products, and it was an honor to work at his company. But the greatest honor has been to emulate what he showed us by his life. That each of us must find our own path. The unmarked path.
So I ask you to join me in honoring Steve’s greatness not by trying to be Steve, but by trying to be your greatest self.
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I happened across your blog on HBR, and I thought it was so well said – one of the best I’ve read so far. Thank you so much for sharing your insight.
It takes courage to pick up the gifts we are given and use them to their fullest potential to make the world a better place. But when we see that courage in others – in action – as it was in Steve Jobs, we find a little more of it in ourselves too.
There’s a quote by Marianne Williamson that resonates with me on a spiritual level that came to mind while reading your tribute:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Steve Jobs was one of those rare, “crazy ones” who let his light shine and far too few in our generation have been courageous enough to dare to realize his or her own inherent potential as he did. His gift to us is far greater than just the amazing way that he put the whole world in our pocket. His legacy is his showing us just how exponentially our tapped potential can change the world for the better when we (individually and collectively) invest our lives in doing something we love that matters.
We’re all spinning through space on this wild ride together, yet we divide ourselves in these illusory social constructs of race, religion, geographic border, political party, economic status, etc. Famine and war persist. It would all seem very hopeless if it were not for the knowledge that humanity has limitless potential for good if we dare to wake up and recognize that separateness is the greatest illusion and challenge we are to overcome as the human race. The world needs more people like Steve Jobs to help us have the vision to become something greater than we are now.
I seek the courage to be my ‘greater self ‘ and knowing that Steve lived his every day gives me a little more confidence that just maybe I can too.
“I grew up picking apricots on the property where Apple buildings now stand.” So the apricot trees were replaced by a corporate headquarters? Sad.
Hi Nilofer, your posts are very insightful. And its very impactful that you write from a space of spirituality. I respect that you draw from your own personal ups and downs. I have learnt that to designing my own life I simply have to believe…. and sometimes not worry too much about the practical stuff (easier said than done!). Keep up the inspirational work.
@laxmi