{"id":8160,"date":"2011-10-06T05:45:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T09:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=8160"},"modified":"2011-11-03T13:41:16","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T17:41:16","slug":"steve-jobs-defied-the-mediocrity-of-the-corporate-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/steve-jobs-defied-the-mediocrity-of-the-corporate-model","title":{"rendered":"Steve Jobs dead at 56; he defied the mediocrity of the corporate model"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Steve Jobs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Jobs, the energetic voice of the Apple computer empire, is dead at 56 of complications from pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

With a high school buddy, Steve Wozniak, he founded Apple in his garage \u2014 convinced that small, personal computers were the wave of the future \u2014 contrary to the IBM vision of desktop terminals connected to massive mainframes. The result was the Apple I, an experimental mini-computer that gave birth to Apple\u2019s first mass-produced consumer model, the revolutionary Apple II.<\/p>\n

But then Jobs realized that the average citizen was never going to learn computer language \u2014 and if personal computers were going to go mainstream, they had to be easy to use. The result was the Macintosh Apple, billed as \u201cthe computer for the rest of us.\u201d Instead of memorizing codes, the user just had to be able to work a \u201cmouse,\u201d a hand-held, rodent-sized controller attached to the Mac by a tail-like cord.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jobs, right, with Steve Wozniak in 1978<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Jobs constantly envisioned the future and the world followed him to it. He moved computers from the world of geek hobbyists and gave us iPods and iPads. He singlehandedly revolutionized the music industry \u2014 transforming it from a world of vinyl-filled record stores to easy downloads charged to a credit card. He turned Alexander Graham Bell\u2019s telephone into the iPhone \u2014 on which the user can make calls, take photos, check in on Facebook, read their Bible, do their taxes and confirm airline reservations.<\/p>\n

Steve Jobs told us what we needed before we knew we wanted it.<\/p>\n

His Pixar studios transformed animated movies \u2014 taking them from hand-drawn Disney characters to the computer-generated worlds of the Toy Story and Ice Age franchises. He morphed into Disney\u2019s biggest shareholder when he sold Pixar to the entertainment giant.<\/p>\n

His death has shaken the world \u2014 although we all knew he was desperately ill. He was strangely absent yesterday when Apple rolled out a disappointing revamp of the iPhone 4 \u2014 stunning us all when there was no iPhone 5, just a disappointing upgrade. His passing shocked us all \u2014 unexpected, like the day we lost Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson or John Lennon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it the End of the World??<\/a><\/big>\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n“In God We Trust” Affirmed<\/a><\/big>\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nWhat is Chrislam?<\/a><\/big>\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nMuslims Protect Bible Society<\/a><\/big>\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We\u2019d convinced ourselves that he couldn\u2019t die. After all, he\u2019d defied cancer so many times. He\u2019d defied Wall Street and won over and over. He\u2019d triumphed over the incompetence that epitomizes today\u2019s corporate model. Apple\u2019s board had decided he was too unpredictable and undisciplined in the 1980s and fired him. What followed was a decade of mediocrity, memos, meetings and momentum loss as Apple was left in the dust by Bill Gates and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Jobs returned in 1997 to rescue Apple from the paper shufflers and money managers. During his second stint, Apple grew into the most valuable brand in the world with an estimated market value of $351 billion. Every bit of Apple\u2019s wealth was created by their loose -cannon genius \u2014 Steve Jobs \u2014 who thought outside of the box, made deals that baffled the MBAs and CPAs with their SOPs \u2026 and created necessities that not so long ago we couldn’t even figure out how to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve\u2019s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,\u201d Apple\u2019s board said in a statement. \u201cThe world is immeasurably better because of Steve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their lifeless roll-out Wednesday of the iPhone 4S demonstrates just how much Apple depended on Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll not see anything like him again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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