by Andrew Leonard
I've never seen a living man receive as many obituaries as Steve Jobs has in the last 24 hours, but I guess it's understandable. The first line of his letter to the "Apple Community" spells it out: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple''s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." Those words are a sucker punch to the communal solar plexus -- it's impossible to imagine anything other than severe illness that would impel Jobs to step down from running the show -- except maybe a palace coup. And we've already been there, done that. There will be no reruns. Apple is currently the most successful and influential company on the planet -- nobody, anywhere, questions the quality of his leadership.
And that's what's so amazing about the Steve Jobs story. It's easy enough to rhapsodize over Jobs' incredible track record -- his accomplishments include the first great personal computer, the transformation of both the music and the telephone business, and the creation of one of the greatest movie-making studios of our time. Just writing that sentence is breathtaking. We will not see its like again. But for me, Jobs' career signifies something more primal -- his comeback saga is a story of redemption, a fantasy epic in which a great king is toppled, but through force of will and grit and brilliance fights his way all the way back to the throne, and inaugurates an even greater empire. It's hard to think of parallels. Mohammed Ali, maybe.
America loves underdogs and comeback kids and winners. Jobs' career arc fills all of those bills. You don't have to be a Windows guy or a Mac guy to appreciate this. All you have to do is love a great story. And the story of how Jobs got pushed out of Apple by a man he personally hand-picked to help run his company, how the company teetered perilously close to bankruptcy, and how Jobs came back to lead Apple to unthinkable success is one hell of an insanely great yarn.
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I've never seen a living man receive as many obituaries as Steve Jobs has in the last 24 hours, but I guess it's understandable. The first line of his letter to the "Apple Community" spells it out: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple''s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." Those words are a sucker punch to the communal solar plexus -- it's impossible to imagine anything other than severe illness that would impel Jobs to step down from running the show -- except maybe a palace coup. And we've already been there, done that. There will be no reruns. Apple is currently the most successful and influential company on the planet -- nobody, anywhere, questions the quality of his leadership.And that's what's so amazing about the Steve Jobs story. It's easy enough to rhapsodize over Jobs' incredible track record -- his accomplishments include the first great personal computer, the transformation of both the music and the telephone business, and the creation of one of the greatest movie-making studios of our time. Just writing that sentence is breathtaking. We will not see its like again. But for me, Jobs' career signifies something more primal -- his comeback saga is a story of redemption, a fantasy epic in which a great king is toppled, but through force of will and grit and brilliance fights his way all the way back to the throne, and inaugurates an even greater empire. It's hard to think of parallels. Mohammed Ali, maybe.
America loves underdogs and comeback kids and winners. Jobs' career arc fills all of those bills. You don't have to be a Windows guy or a Mac guy to appreciate this. All you have to do is love a great story. And the story of how Jobs got pushed out of Apple by a man he personally hand-picked to help run his company, how the company teetered perilously close to bankruptcy, and how Jobs came back to lead Apple to unthinkable success is one hell of an insanely great yarn.
Read more:
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