The Real Reason We’ll Miss Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is dead and the world has noticed. Apple Stores across the world have been transformed into memorials to the man that made them possible. Google and Samsung have delayed important product announcements. Celebrities have tweeted, authors have put pen to paper, and normal every day people have used Facebook to share quotes, memories and feelings about a man they never met but who affected their lives so intimately. The president of the United States made a public statement about Jobs’ legacy. We are all so grateful, but the truth is I don’t think most of us understand exactly why.

I’ll say it now, I’m one of the fanboys. I, like so many others, watch every keynote, subscribe to every Apple related blog, and regularly get into arguments with Android fans in the comment sections of online articles. Like any good fanboy, I idolize Jobs. I’ve read every article, watched every video, and shared every quote that I can find that is even tangentially related to him. He inspires me every day. When I found out that he had passed, I felt saddened, and then moved when I saw the amazing worldwide reaction to the news.

As the initial impact of the news faded, the articles started pouring in. Hundreds and thousands of them. Some wrote about the life-changing wisdom he conveyed during a single chance encounter. Others wrote about how when they worked with him it was clear they were in the presence of a genius. Some simply wrote about how easy it is now to see their grandkids from across the globe, or how simple it is to listen to music wherever they go.

It is easy to see why people are so moved. To me, an aspiring entrepreneur, Steve Jobs is a hero. He brought computers into the home, he brought the music industry into the 21st century, he reinvented the phone, and made tablets more than a geek’s hobby. Add to this the fact that he led Pixar to become the world’s most successful animation studio, founded two separate companies, and has an incredible life story, and the sensational nature of his genius becomes apparent. I could go on. You don’t have to be a fanboy or even technologically literate to recognize the magnitude of Jobs’ legacy. Seeing what this one man was been able to do in his short life is an inspiration to anyone. When I think that this one man was regularly able to rock the world and change everything, it makes the thought of doing it just once seem less daunting.

And this is why we think we are sad. We think we are sad because we can no longer count on Steve Jobs to release the next big thing. We think we are sad because we have lost a great mind. We think we are sad because this man who changed everything will no longer be able to get up on stage in his understated jeans and black turtleneck and make us believe in magic for a few moments. He embodied the best of the entrepreneurial spirit, and inspired us all.

We’re not wrong, it’s just not the full story. Many people have changed the world, several of them more than once. Yet with the exception of religious leaders or social change figures, I could find no individual whose death was greeted with such widespread emotion and respect. It is difficult to believe that the departure of even the likes of Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, each the inventor of products that touch hundreds of millions of users daily, could incite the same global reaction that Steve Jobs’ has. There must be something more at play than a lifetime of accomplishments and cool gadgets.

There is. It’s Excellence.

Before the iMac, in a world of companies pinching pennies to stretch profits, we became used to crap. Tons of crap. Crappy TVs, crappy music players, crappy computers, and crappy phones. Computers before the iMac were terrible, but we bought them because we had to. Sure they would break and get viruses and crash, but what else were we supposed to do? Before the iPhone era, the best smart phones on the market were plastic and clunky and hideous. Have you seen a picture of the old Sony Trio? But this was the status quo. The rise of Dell computers is a testament to this. The question driving board room discussions wasn’t “How do we make a great product?” but rather “How do we pack the most specs into the cheapest piece of crap we can make?”

For a long time this was the way of the world, and we were all complacent. We’d go into CompUSA, try out twenty different awful computers, choose the one that had the most GHz, and then deal with the miserable experience that came with it. Inevitably the crappy computer would crack or crash or just stop working all together, and so we’d make our way back to CompUSA, explain what happened, and head home with a new computer made out of the same crappy stuff with the same crappy software that the sales person assured us had a super powered fan that made it crash less often. There were no big product launches, because no one gets excited about crap, no one craves crap, and no one loves crap. Every now and then you’d notice that your computer seemed to be struggling with new software, and you’d realize that there must have been a recent speed bump and it was probably time to get a new computer.

This is the exact opposite of what Apple products are like. Yes, they are priced at a premium (although the extent to which this true is up for debate), but when you buy an Apple product there is a great deal of trust that goes into it. We trust that the small details have been worked out. We trust that it won’t crash and take 20 minutes to start up. We trust that it will last longer than other options, we trust that it will run smoother, and we trust that it is the best experience Apple could possibly make. This trust explains why over a million new iPhone 4S sold out within 12 hours of being available online, a week before anyone will even be able to hold on in their hands and test it out. If that is not trust I don’t know what is.

Why this trust? Because of Apple’s pursuit of Excellence. Steve Jobs always promised us that he would make the best products that he knew how to build, and he always delivered. That’s not to say that he was never wrong, or that there haven’t been a few Apple duds, but no matter what the case, it is always clear that Apple is making the best user experience it possibly can, that Apple is always pursuing Excellence. Contrast this philosophy with the rest of the industry, or any other industry for that matter, and it is clear why this is so refreshing. If Apple puts out a new iPhone, we can rest assured knowing that it is going to be the best iPhone that Apple knows how to make, and it is going to be better than the old one we have in our pocket.

This is why fanboys and millions of others love Apple products. It’s not because they have more functions than other equivalent products (they often don’t), or because they are simpler to use (I think they are), or because they are prettier (they are). It’s because we trust them. Although most of us have no idea what parts are in an iPad, I think every iPad owner trusts that Apple is using parts that won’t break easily and won’t let us down. Although most of us have no idea how an operating system works, I think every Mac owner trusts that we’ll be relatively virus immune and error free. You only earn that trust by pursuing Excellence every time. And that trust creates the emotional bond that so many Apple customers have with their iDevices.

So what does this have to do with Steve Jobs? His relentless pursuit of Excellence served as a beacon of hope to everyone. He built one of the most successful companies in the world, and he did it without compromising. He never cut corners, and he never built crap. His company offered an alternative to crap, a freedom from crap. This is how the world should be. Imagine if every time you went into a restaurant you knew you were getting the best food that the chef knew how to make. Or if any time you went to the post office you knew that they would do everything in their power to make sure that your package arrived on time. Steve Jobs pursued Excellence and was successful, and that makes us happy. It’s good to see quality win over penny pinching.

But it’s more than that. Today, too often we compromise our dreams to pursue our career. We fear failure, and lower our standards to avoid it. It is the general consensus that in order to be successful we need to be willing to change our values, and sometimes do things that we aren’t proud of, or work for a company we don’t believe in. But Steve is a man who never compromised his vision or his values, and he was one of the most successful people of our time. Looking past Steve Jobs as an example of the model entrepreneur, he is also a manifestation of what we all hope is true. That we can really be ourselves, and follow what we believe, and never compromise our values. That we can be free from crap, in every sense of the word. That Excellence is worth pursuing.

This is why we will miss Steve Jobs. We trusted him to be true to us and true to himself. We trusted his products and his taste and his vision. We trusted his relentless pursuit of Excellence. And now we are at a loss because the icon of Excellence is no longer with us, and that is scary. Not just because we want that for our electronic gadgets, but because we want that for ourselves.