Steve Jobs' Nearly-Inspiring Life

I became a Mac fan-boy in 1992, dab-smack in the middle of Steve Jobs' ten-year absence from the company he co-founded in 1976. The early 90s were awful years to be an Apple enthusiast. The company was foundering and the parade of buttoned-down CEOs seemed more interested in grabbing some Microsoft market share than making "insanely great" products. And then there was that whole "clone" escapade. But I hung in there, mostly because I couldn't figure out now to use MS-DOS or cope with it's GUI-like cousin, Windows.

No doubt Jobs learned a few hard lessons from his failed start-up NeXT...one of which presumably led to his founding of Pixar Studios. His return to Apple in 1996, which resulted in the most amazing string of can-you-top-this successes in business history (and I'm not even counting Pixar) was a delight to watch. Kind of a tech-biz equivalent of following Wayne Gretzky and Tiger Woods through their peak years.

But I had seen enough of his interviews, read enough articles and books about him over the years to know that the man behind the iPhone was all-too-human. (Interesting that besides their Stanford connection, both Jobs and Tiger Woods practiced Buddhism.) And of course, the Steve-quote that's getting so much play right now is from Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford: "Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there." As far as it goes, that statement is surely true. However, if you watch or read his entire address, you'll get the clear sense that Jobs had no vision beyond this life and was not among those "who want to go to heaven".

And so I came to hold in my hands the work of Steve Jobs' hands. I marveled at his breathtaking success in transforming the music business. I continue to distill lessons from his fanatical pursuit of excellence. His aesthetic convictions about beauty and design resonate deeply within me. I also feel rewarded for my years of loyalty to Apple when I see worldwide embrace of their brand. And yet...

...as a person—not as an icon of accomplishment, success, fame and accolades—his next appearance will be before his Maker. The judge at that review will indeed "think different". Steve Jobs' famed reality distortion field will not carry that day. In the end, despite all the enjoyment and benefit his products have brought into our lives, my sadness at the passing of Steve Jobs isn't merely about missing an amazing innovator, it's about what he's missing by deciding against heaven.