“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you … the minute that you understand that you can poke life … that you can change it, you can mould it … that’s maybe the most important thing.” – Steve Jobs, in a never before broadcast, exclusive interview featured in the PBS documentary “Steve Jobs – One Last Thing”
Image created by Jonathan Mak Long
It’s been nearly a month since the impact of his death reverberated around the world. Two new chronicles of Steve Jobs’ life this week focused on a couple of questions about the master innovator that got me, too, thinking again: Why was he great? What makes a genius?
“The Genius of Jobs” is the headline of an opinion piece by writer Walter Isaacson that ran in The New York Times’ “Sunday Review.” Here Isaacson, author of the newly released biography “Steve Jobs,” reflects on the genius, or ingenuity, of Steve Jobs and draws some remarkable parallels with Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, two of his other biography subjects. He reminds us that the genius equation requires both new ideas and execution. And he believes that the most successful Americans have been those creative and imaginative types who know how to “stand at the intersection of the humanities and science.”
Then there’s “One last thing,” Steve Jobs’ well-known product intro catchphrase that’s also the title of a PBS documentary that debuted Wednesday night about the man who changed the nature of technology. This program of interviews with people who worked closely with Jobs or chronicled his life examines the Apple co-founder’s influences, talents and achievements. Comparisons by a few are made to Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and Henry Ford.
The creations of Steve Jobs and the other famed inventors he’s named alongside clearly had changed the world. But it’s what they set out to do – to apply their energy to changing lives for the better. Their innovations were tied to service and improvements for the greater good. I’ve been reminded again of the broadest meaning of success.
Tags: Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, success
