It’s always a loss when someone dies, and the more that person contributed to the fabric of society, the deeper the loss is felt. When Apple founder and resident genius Steve Jobs died Wednesday, he left behind a company, a community, a worldwide legacy that will not be forgotten. But he left a lot more than that too.
He left a series of unanswerable questions: How deep is this loss? Once we move past the sadness and pain, where will we go next? Where would we have gone if he hadn’t departed so soon? Someone will (and has) succeeded him, but can anyone replace him?
Steve’s loss is a loss for the entire world, as his influence touched the farthest corners of the planet. But it’s a particular loss for the business world, which has increasingly become dependent upon Apple’s communication products, most particularly the iPhone and iPad. Would we have “Angry Birds” without Steve? Even better, would we be able to connect and collaborate with colleagues an ocean or two away? Would the small world we now live in have stayed a bigger, more siloed place?
We’ll never know. We’ll just have to be grateful with the gifts given to us, and always wonder what’s happening differently in the alternative world where Steve Jobs still survives and thrives.
Looking at the business impact of this loss, with the possible exception of IT, the training function is going to feel this loss perhaps most deeply. So much of Steve’s work has been co-opted, adapted and driven by/for the training industry that the link is just about inseparable. Whole companies have sprung up to develop resources and solutions for Apple products and instructional designers have embraced the iProducts so completely and so quickly it’s almost hard to believe. Think about it: Five years ago the words “Going Mobile” were merely a song title from The Who. Now, it’s a whole new way to handle global access and delivery of business information.
I had the pleasure, earlier in my professional life, of working on the Apple campus in Cupertino, CA. It was not, unfortunately, under the leadership of Steve Jobs at that time, but his spirit most definitively remained in the hallways, as I know it now does, and now always will. At that time, the campus was an around-the-clock beehive of energy, with business discussions underscored by the sound of stress-relieving ping-pong games, and the massive quad constantly filled with collegial-like games and business discussions. The work, in other words, was infused with a sense of life and energy that became Steve’s hallmarks. From this unique combination of business and pleasure came the iPod, iPhone and the iPad … a legacy was born long before the legend was over.
Naturally, Apple will survive. The training industry will survive. New geniuses will emerge with new ideas, with their talents growing from Steve’s work as surely as new crops of musicians find inspiration in the soulful sounds of their predecessors. We’ll continue to invent and innovate and we’ll someday remember Steve Jobs with the same sepia-toned sadness that comes to mind when we think of other legends lost.
But for now, the wound is fresh, and the healing must begin. God speed and God rest, Steve. And thank you.
