How I Began To Appreciate Steve Jobs

For many years, I had no respect for Steve Jobs. I thought he was just an arrogant person who got lucky. I always assumed that Steve Wozniak did all the work and Steve Jobs just had the idea of selling computers. Given that I have had access to both Macs and Windows, I can appreciate both and see their pros and cons. Because of that, when I would see Steve Jobs saying something along the lines of "of course the IPad is the best product of its kind on the market and of course we patented it", I would be aggravated because of what in my mind was a clear disrespect for technology and a way for Steve Jobs to release his ego. However, what always bothered me the most was how so many people blindly followed him and were amazed by what to me appeared to be an extremely egotistic billionaire. At the time, I did not have respect for his ability to make people love him while being so straightforward and generally overconfident.  

It was not till Tim Cook became Apple’s CEO and led one of their famous release conferences (where they unveil their most recent technologies) that I began to see the true genius behind Steve Jobs' business strategy. What caught me first was the way Apple captured their audience and then begin to explain the advanced technology in a way that anyone could understand, and furthermore make it seem like something everyone needs. A little while after, I happened to stumble across an interview with Steve Jobs from the early nineties, where he explained one of Apple's biggest accomplishments, simplicity.

    I never liked how simple Macs are. When I was told that Macs are amazing because they cannot get viruses or they rarely break, I would always reply by saying that the reason is that they cannot do anything, and to keep in mind that when they did have problems, that  you could not fix them like you can with Windows . For example, if you have a computer that is not capable of running a good percentage of the applications that are out in the cloud, then you are not downloading them. Thus, your computer will remain virus-free. Although Macs are capable of downloading and running lots of applications, a good majority of these applications will not run as well as they would on Windows.  Another thing to keep in mind is that although Macs might appear to be prominent in the U.S. and Europe, remember that in most other countries, Windows is the clear winner. Also keep in mind that a lot of viruses make money by stealing your information, so why would a hacker make a virus that is designed for a computer that is used far less?

         In the interview, Steve said that he was working on computers and did not think the average person would ever be able to use one because they would not understand the code. Then all of a sudden he realized that computers got to the point where anyone could use them without having to understand even the most basic code, and that is when I realized that Apple had really made a personal computer that was not that changeable and yet more personal than what any other company could have achieved at the time. Then Steve would go on to make it not only personal but beautiful. For example, he was the first person to make interesting fonts and to this day Apple still makes extremely simple, well polished designs that really do make the owner feel like they own something that is advanced and modern and yet their grandfather could use it.

      In the end, Apple made an amazing product, giving Steve the right to brag. Once he got such a strong group of  dedicated customers, Steve could get even the most simple products to seem revolutionary, and in my opinion that is an amazing accomplishment. Although he may have come across as an egotist know-it-all, in the end I believe he was a good person who learned how to harness his egotistical tendencies in order to make the amazing accomplishments and gain the respect from the people who worked under him, and the people who bought his products