Controlling Your Own Wings as You Fly High: Reflection of the Life of Steve Jobs

From the iPod, to iPad, to the slim MacBook, the Apple products that inundate our lives today are not simply technological products touted by so many as "cutting edge," as "revolutionary," and as not surpassed or comparable with any rivals. Above everything else, these products are cultural phenomenons, symbolizing the very definition of a modern life and harbinger of a great optimistic future of technological innovations, triggering the endless imaginations of the tech-savvy youth and the fashionable across the world.

Yet, mortality of human beings, unfortunately, cannot be annulled by that promise of an ever-increasing optimism of a technological future. And as its chief architect, who has captured our imagination and expanded our dreams, leaves us all of a sudden, we cannot help but wonder if the dreams, so well-encapsulated by his very presence, must now be deterred somewhat. The fact that physical legacies of his achievements are now so ubiquitous, only makes all of us that much more anxious of what is to come.

Surely enough, technological innovation, throughout history, has never been the work of one or even a few. The improvements to existing technologies come from combined efforts of many unrelated people who each supplied their tidbits to push crude prototypes to their current mastery. Yet, the human memory is limited, and none of us can remember and appreciate those millions who made their contributions to make our lives that much more convenient and simple with their anonymous mental efforts.

We, instead, turn what is prominent into mental and physical icons, easily recognizable and memorable to all. Steve Jobs, ultimately, was the master reader of our minds. It is he who packaged the works of millions of innovators into a slim package (with a simple logo) that became the symbol of "cool" and "fashionable" for people in every country and every social class. Suddenly, dry technology, reserved for geeks, became the pinnacle of desirability in the minds of the most tech-illiterate populations.

In the process of turning the technology into cultural symbols, Jobs also had to turn himself into a cultural symbol. In the minds of both fans and rivals, he became the symbol of a tough perfectionist, a vivid storyteller, and brilliant marketer. His success, in part due to his technological genius, somehow also became packaged, comprehensible, and possible for imitation among millions of aspiring business leaders, hoping to turn their own ideas and products into the next cultural icons.

Yet, above everything else, Steve Jobs would not have become the symbolic Steve Jobs without his determination and self-control. His rag-to-riches story of a in-the-garage entrepreneur to a globally recognized billionaire businessman is above all, one of self-determination and self-control. He depended on no one, no business connections, and no existing corporate structures to become who he is. He showed all of us that, even in the sophisticated dog-eat-dog world of modern global capitalism, strength of the self, sprinkled with a bit of originality, can still create a massive impact out of nowhere.

And as history progresses and technologies become ever more complex, it is for this self-reliant quality that people will ultimately remember Jobs. For every skill in the world, there are millions of people who claim to be experts. Yet, even among thousands among those who are true experts, only a few will remembered to be so. The collective memory, as Steve shows us, depend not upon skill itself, but its expression: the willingness of persist with it despite crushing sense of anonymity one must face in the initial stages.

Every person in the world, for all his or her lack in confidence, does have something to claim as "good at." It does not have to be unique in nature or even best in the kind. But, without passion or persistence, even those minor "good at" will simply disappear. However, if those little "good at" can be fueled by persistence and a little flair to the widely observable benefit of human beings, then, well, maybe we would all have something worthy of cultural symbolism. Steve Jobs would certainly be cherished to hear that.