Much has already been written about the life and death of Steve Jobs, yet I can't help but continue to ruminate such a life and loss. I was quite saddened when I first heard about Mr. Jobs passing away, and I continue to feel his absence. He offered so much inventiveness and hope for America in our time of need. He strengthened my faith that excellent design and innovation allow companies (and individuals) to thrive and make the world a better place.
Although we have lost a great soul, and a genius of a soul at that, I am absolutely sure of something else that comforts me: we all have "what it takes" to be a genius in our own right. We each have the potential to innovate if we recognize and accept the talents we possess and dare to use those talents wisely. When we create ourselves by streamlining, harnessing, and giving power to our personal resources, we begin to solve problems no one else can solve, we invent fresh new paradigms for the future and challenge the tried and not-so-true.
Jobs' personal resources didn't include a college degree, family money or inherited connections to powerful people. Rather, his resources were not that uncommon. In fact, many of you reading this post possess quite a few of his attributes but don't even realize it! That's because our society doesn't emphasize learning and appreciating what truly makes us tick; therefore, unless we work with someone who knows about aptitudes and talents, we never learn how to know ourselves in the most effective, mobilizing way.
So what made Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs? As with all human beings, the possible explanations are infinite. However, most notable was his irrepressible fascination with design and technology, and fusing them to form the ultimate user experience. Furthermore, he collaborated with other extremely gifted designers, innovators and scientists to create nothing short of magic.
What did Jobs bring to the collaborative table? He possessed qualities such as persuasiveness, enthusias hyper focus, calculated risk-taking, passionate vision, determination, and singular commitment. And, of course, there was the more highly publicized traits such as forceful initiative, gumption and nerve. Fortunately, as he grew older, these traits developed into beautifully nuanced versions of their original forms.
But other, less visible abilities were vital to his outstanding achievements: highly fluid thinking, a specialization preference, editorial prowess, team building, maestro tendencies, divergent and convergent thinking capabilities, gut hunches, keen awareness of flaws, inventiveness, visualizing possibilities, creating unheard of scenarios, and careful discernment of ideas and designs.
Just to name a few.
But here's the good news: we all have our own combination of abilities that need to be recognized and put to use. So find out what combinations make you tick. And thrive. And create.
Just remember, however, that mobilizing your personal, unique resources doesn't come without a price. Jobs showed us, on many occasions throughout his lifetime, that being openly distinct in thought and action can create friction. It can piss people off. It makes people uncomfortable and usually makes them think we're nuts. In fact, some members of the media have said throughout Jobs' life that he had a "madness" when it came to feeling strongly about the intersection of design and technology. Of course, some of it was, understandably, a reaction to his unique emotional intensity and focus, but much of it was apprehension to Jobs' visions of the future.
As we've seen with Apple, this friction, this passion for new possibilities, breaks down walls and allows new ideas and products and services to evolve. Some products flop, some ideas are rejected, and others are home runs. Being willing to look kind of foolish, dreamy, and eccentric to others may indeed make magic happen in the long run. Unfortunately for those of us with a bit less gumption than say, Steve Jobs, going against the grain may be the hardest journey we'll ever take. But it could also be one of the best.
So I say, we must take our backbones to task! We must plunge into knowing, finding, and then being ourselves. Instead of envying and copying others, we need to dig up our own inner resources. The world needs our authenticity, not our need to superficially please others (family, friends, colleagues) for the sake of status or validation. We must embrace our own way of thinking, strengths, weaknesses, fascinations and needs. Otherwise there is no vision for personal, technological, economic, artistic, or intellectual evolution, only mediocrity.
Those indifferent to their own strengths race like rats to pursue already-laid paths, many of them on a sole mission to fulfill someone else's expectations. Others strive solely to make a lot of money, gain power and achieve "success" in the most unimaginative terms.
Talk about a waste of personal resources!
But then there are others, like Mr. Jobs, who let his fascinations and his unstoppable drive for innovation overcome his own doubts and fears.
Now here's to you and your own genius within. Recognize it. Appreciate it. And use it wisely.
