Friday, October 7, 2011

A Man FOR the People

There are a lot of corporate CEOs who have high name recognition, and some probably even conjure definite images in our minds.

Nowadays when you think of Rupert Murdoch, it’s likely that there are some negative things that you associate with him. His empire has been rocked by the scandalous tactics that appear to have been commonplace under his watch.

How about Warren Buffett? You might think about his philanthropy, but thinking about his wealth is certainly top of mind too. Maybe the same holds true if you hear the name Bill Gates. Both of those guys do an incredible amount of giving of their wealth.

What about Mark Zuckerberg? If you saw The Social Network you might have some thoughts, but most everyone knows he’s the Facebook guy. He’s also the guy that gave Newark public schools $100 million. Wow!

A lot of business professionals know the name Jack Welch. He’s the legendary CEO of General Electric renowned not only for growing one of the world’s biggest company during his 20+ years as the head of that company, but also for developing leaders.

Now think about Steve Jobs. It’s quite different what comes to mind, isn’t it? Of course we all know he was the guy that ran Apple, but the outpouring of emotion with the announcement of his death was just incredible. We probably all assume he had a certain amount of wealth, and that he likely did some very generous philanthropic work as well.

But in watching and reading all the coverage the past couple of days, what really seems to resonate most is that he changed people’s lives. He changed their lives! There were innumerable accounts of shrines set up all around the world, people posting emotional comments online, and all kinds of creative things with apples, Apple logos, and plays on their signature names like iSad. What a remarkable thing to elicit that kind of reaction from people with whom you’ve never had personal contact.

Many leaders would give their eye teeth to have their employees feel a fraction of that connection with their companies, and I’d bet employees would love to feel that way about their companies. People want the opportunity to get excited about stuff, and work shouldn’t be an exception.

The truth is that he really touched all our lives whether we bought his Apple products or not, watched his Pixar movies or not. The innovations that Steve Jobs led spurred on the innovations of his competitors. We all benefitted.

I didn’t know Steve Jobs, and I’m not an Apple junkie, but greatness this big can be seen from very far away.

In his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, Steve Jobs said that he asked himself this question every morning: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?” Find that thing you want to do, and give ‘em hell.

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