Editorial: Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

The death of Steve Jobs, the Apple Chairman and former Chief Executive Officer, on October 5, 2011 has created a great vacuum in the Information Technology (IT) industry. His demise at the age of 56, after a protracted battle with pancreatic cancer and having undergone a liver transplant, has robbed the world of a great genius, and one of the foremost visionaries and innovators the world has produced.

Having being born on February 24, 1955, out of wedlock by two graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison-Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian immigrant pursuing his doctorate in political science, and Joanne Simpson, who was studying for her master’s in speech, Jobs was adopted at birth by Paul and Clara Jobs of San Francisco.

He matriculated at Portland’s Reed College, a bastion of the counter-culture and leftist artsy intellectualism, but when the first bill was not paid, Jobs negotiated with the dean of students to be allowed in the dormitory and attend classes for free.

Like Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Jobs was a college dropout. But that did not in any way limit his vision about the world and his goals in life. He has proved that one can be whatever he aspires to be without a degree.

Jobs’ successes and achievements did not come by wishful thinking or by cutting corners. He was reputed to have extraordinary persuasiveness and known for his constant risk taking, rare deal-making ability and fierce perfectionism.

At 21, he and his friend, Steve Wozniak, also a college dropout, founded Apple Computer Incorporation in the Jobs family garage in 1976. Within three months, they rolled out a rudimentary personal computer to fellow enthusiasts in Palo Alto, California and sold it at a local computer store at $666.66.This was followed with Apple 11 on its first anniversary deploying money earned from Apple1 to create a far more elaborate and cosmetically polished machine. Apple Macintosh was launched on January 24, 1984.

On January 1, 1983, Apple introduced the Lisa, a revolutionary computer that flops spectacularly. It sports many features that later became standard. After the May 31, 1985 bitter clash with Apple CEO, John Sculley, over company strategy amid flagging sales for the Apple 11 and Macintosh, Jobs was driven out of the company and he founded NeXT Software, a new computer company and bought Lucasfilm’s Graphics Group.

Apple bought NeXT and brought back Jobs to the company and seven months later he led a boardroom coup that reinstated him as the CEO.
In 2001, Apple took on the music business with the iPod. The device is paired with iTunes, a software programme that allows users manage music files on their computers and iPods. In 2007, Jobs unveiled the iPhone, a smartphone with a touchscreen.

On January 27, 2010, Jobs came up with the iPad, a touchscreeen tablet computer, which later dominated the tablet-computing market. A second version was released in March 2011.
A firm believer in keeping secrets, he shunned focus groups and liked working with small teams he could remember their first names. He never stopped studying and he tapped the experts. Jobs liked prototypes, simplification and using the carrot than the stick.

Jobs’ life was one of the great grass-to-grace stories. Born by unwilling parents, he was adopted at birth. He dropped out of school and yet was able to achieve tremendous successes. His views on death, “remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” are very instructive. Without supportive biological parents and college degree, he was able to create industry and wealth. He had talents and knack for business and entrepreneurship, which he exploited to the fullest.

He proved that even in the face of adversity, exclusion, and rejection that one can overcome provided he is consistent and willing to take risks.
We should celebrate his innovative spirit and entrepreneurship. Nigerians should borrow a leaf from Jobs. His life had shown the futility of our emphasis and over-dependence on paper qualifications. He had proven that what one can do with his brains and hands would determine what he would become. He brought reality into other people’s dreams. We mourn with the entire IT industry, the Jobs and his colleagues over the irreparable loss.wp_posts