In all of American business, no figure resembles the classic hero of Greek drama as much as Steve Jobs. Along with the other Steve, Wozniak, he founded Apple Computer and became a billionaire at twenty-five. That was just the beginning.
Most readers of the business press know his story in outline. He took inspiration from projects he saw at Xerox PARC, and, in 1984, introduced the Macintosh - the first personal computer with a graphical interface and a mouse. But before two years had passed, Jobs was cast out from the company he founded by the man he had brought in as his successor. He went off into what Mac zealots called "exile."
He didn't remain idle. He founded a company called Next that was supposed to build great computers. That company never really worked out but Jobs wound up selling it to Apple.
In 1986 he bought an animation team that had worked for George Lucas and founded Pixar. That company changed the way animations were done with films like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. Pixar was a huge success and made Jobs a billionaire all over again.
In 1997, Jobs was called back from the wilderness to become Interim CEO of Apple Computer. He rallied the true believers around him and hauled Apple back from the brink of disaster, mostly with a new series of "I" products starting with the iMac. "I" was for Internet.
In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod. It was an elegant digital music player with astounding capacity compared with the competition. You could download music to it from the Internet or your own CDs. The only problem was that the world of music downloading was still chaos. Steve Jobs brought order.
He managed to get all of the key players in the record business to sit down together and agree to make their music available, tune by tune, for ninety-nine cents apiece, on his iTunes Web site. That site currently has a 70 percent market share for digital music downloading.
It's not just the accomplishments and the exile and return that seem to mimic the stories of classic heroes. There is also that tragic flaw thing. It almost seems as if there are several Steves.
One Steve is "Confident Steve." He had the vision that became the Mac, who overcame the failure of an earlier, more expensive version called the Lisa, and who drove the development of the Macintosh with an energy and confidence uncommon among public company executives.
Then there is "Arrogant Steve." It's not enough for Jobs to admit there is a difference of opinion. He's got to be right and you've got to be wrong. Even more, he has to be right and you have to be a jerk.
Jobs' arrogance probably cost Apple the chance to be the leader in personal computers. He was so sure that the Mac was so good and that no one else could copy it that he refused to share the code necessary for independent developers to develop Mac software.
That left thousands of developers free to put out program after program and variant after niche-oriented variant for computers that ran Microsoft operating systems. And Microsoft came out with its own graphical interface.
Apple began to lose market share and almost didn't stop. Today, they have less than five percent of the personal computer market, but you'd never know that by listening to the folks at Apple or to Mac enthusiasts.
That's because the Macintosh is more than an excellent computer. It's also a theological position and a lifestyle choice.
Macintosh users don't just own their computers, they believe in them and they echo Jobs in trumpeting the Mac's perceived superiority. Meanwhile, Jobs spends his time talking about how Apple is creating new products that are far and away better than anyone else's. People believe him.
That's another Steve Jobs. Call him "Persuasive Steve."
Jobs is a zealot with sales skills. He resembles no one so much as the Apostle Paul, who was the original Mediterranean marketing manager for Christianity.
Jobs' sales skills are so legendary that folks refer to the "reality distortion field" that surrounds him. When Steve turns it on and tells you about the latest product that he's releasing, you get sucked into that field and believe right along with him. Sometimes there's no distortion, either.
Apple people talk about leading the PC industry. That sounds funny coming from a company with the miniscule marketshare of Apple. But, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "It's funny because it's true."
Where Apple truly leads is in product development. The company produces products that lead the industry because they are products that fit the way that people live and the ways they want to use their gear.
That is a result of the obsessive energy that Steve Jobs puts into product development. Along with selling Apple's creations, that seems to be where his energy goes.
It certainly doesn't go into dress. Pretty much every day he wears the same mock turtleneck and beltless jeans. On hot days, he might switch off to hiking shorts. The energy and attention that some people lavish on choosing what to wear, Jobs lavishes on the details of development. He's like a techno-version of the great architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, believing that "God is in the details."
The word around the campfire is that no matter what the project is, at some point Steve Jobs is going to want it torn all down and started it all over again. It was true for the Mac. It was true for the iPod. And it was true for just about every film that Pixar made.
That obsessive concentration on product development is one of the reasons why product development itself may be Jobs' single greatest skill. It builds on his greatest strength. Steve Jobs is, truly, a visionary, and "Visionary Steve" is like no one else I can think of as much as Walt Disney.
Disney was not a great animator or a great technician. What he was great at was understanding how an emerging technology of animation and movies and illusion could and would be enjoyed by regular, everyday people.
Jobs has that same power, except that he is applying it in the age of computer technology. When he recruited John Sculley to come to Apple, he famously asked the Pepsi CEO, "Do you want to spend your life selling sugared water to kids, or do you want to change the world?"
Whatever else Jobs may be about, it's changing the world. Vision gives him power. His sales skills help him enlist others in the quest to make the vision into reality, like bringing the players in the music business together to agree to make their music available online, song by song, for a reasonable price.
That move coupled up with great product design to make the iPod Apple's greatest hit since the Mac. Some analysts believe that Apple is losing money on the iTunes Web site. They've speculated that Jobs' scheme might be to use the iTunes site as a way to drive iPod sales. If that's true, it's a dangerous strategy.
Already folks like Microsoft and Dell are gearing up to produce music players with the kinds of features that iPod pioneered. They don't want to license iPod technology from Apple if they can get around it.
For now, the record companies have agreed that their tunes will only be downloadable from the iTunes site and that means that they must use iPod or iPod license technology. But how long do you think the record companies will go without looking for other places to sell their wares?
This brings us back to Steve Jobs, the hero. The question is which Steve will show up next in the saga?
Will it be Confident Steve, who will find a way to move with the market and solidify Apple's position in the computer and entertainment worlds? Or will it be Arrogant Steve, who will put so much trust in the infinite and eternal superiority of his products that he may lead his company back to the brink of disaster?
