Steve Jobs passed away today. What could have been in his mind just moments before passing away? Family? Wife? Daughter? Apple? His lieutenants? Wondering how they would continue the Apple’s legacy? Wish for a bit more life time? Imagining what’s still ahead and possible in the evolution of human computing? His creative mind could have been running wild while his brain was shutting down.
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It just seems too short of a life.
What a story. I don’t know if his legacy will endure the time as much as Einstein’s did, but it certainly will stand up among the very few that are remembered and respected through several decades.
Einstein has left GE? I suppose I will see how Apple will continue its story. Does it have the right management development program, people, and culture to continue its success? I don’t know if Steve Jobs cared so much about Apple’s continued success after his time. Maybe he wanted Apple to be Steve and show the world that it was him that made Apple work. The key question I have is, why he didn’t appoint a designer (such as Ive) as the successor when his approach was so centered around design and strategy. Why did he have an operations guy to take on the top position? Would designers at Apple get frustrated of the boss who sees the world in operational terms?
Whatever his last flashes of thoughts were just before his death, Steve ended it all at the highest point – reminiscent of Jordan’s retirement after his sixth ring. Maybe that’s not too bad. In his soul, that would be the world that he knows. That would be the world he remembers. Maybe, forever.