Thursday, October 06, 2011

What Steve Jobs (just) taught me

I love this tribute to Steve Jobs from my friend Elizabeth on her blog (picture, courtesy of the WSJ), especially this point:

"By 1997, Apple was floundering and had $2 billion in losses over two years. Who did they call? They guy they fired in the eighties. Did Steve hold a grudge and say, "Thanks for buying my new company, but you fired me, remember? I'd rather take my $400 million and watch your rapid decline from a far." Nope! He came back and took over as the interim CEO.... [I]n his last decade of life, he took those $2 billion in losses and turned Apple into the world's most valuable company at $350 billion."

We all want to leave a legacy, and watching the outpouring of appreciation and gratitude for Steve Jobs across all forms of media today is inspiring. Elizabeth's point helps me remember that sometimes, the opportunity to REALLY make a difference comes from rising to the occasion.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was listening to a speech he gave in 1996 at Stanford(?) in which he discussed being "hit over the head" by life when he was fired, which caused him to search, grow, and develop as a leader and as a person. Good thing God doesn't give up on us.