Steve Jobs’s Legacy

Steve Jobs | BCBusiness

Steve Jobs did many great things in his life, but one of the greatest was to make the world understand that creativity has a large place in business.

When the legendary Steve Jobs died on Wednesday, the accolades poured in from around the world: he created the computer industry, he revived Apple and built it into one of the world’s largest businesses, and he was a tech genius.  

They continue to pour in as media focus on Jobs, the heroic designer who really did change the world instead of just talking about it.

But most important, in my opinion, is that Jobs not only championed the need for creativity in business, he showed that, today, creativity is business.

Jobs amassed a personal fortune of almost $9 billion by the continual starting and building of businesses with creativity at their core. First Apple, from which he was ousted. Then Next Computers, which he later sold back to Apple. Then Pixar, which he bought from filmmaker George Lucas and turned into an animation powerhouse that was eventually sold to Disney for more billions. And finally his return to Apple and the drive toward the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Jobs could be a hard man at times – he was famously temperamental and didn’t easily put up with those he deemed as fools, dullards, or impediments to what he wanted.

But one could almost forgive him his excesses against those who didn’t share his view. For he believed that technology should not only push the envelope in terms of technological innovation and usability, but should also be designed beautifully.

They clashed with his vision that a perfect combination of utility and creativity should be at the basis of all business today, no matter what that business involves.

Not so long ago, business was an occupation involving rote methodology, often suffocating group think, and a deep suspicion of anything remotely deemed as “creative.”

Now, it is understood by the best businesses that creativity is what really drives growth. These businesses draw the best and brightest because they encourage them to unleash their own creativity.

Today, creativity, inventiveness, and vision are highly prized. This is Steve Jobs’s legacy.