Apple’s Spark
In September, 1985, Newsweek Magazine published an article profiling Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple, and hinted at his future and his yet unnamed startup, NeXT. [1] Detailing the rift that divided the company, and the factors that drove Jobs out, he made a telling observation about the state of, and the future of Apple, in his absence:
“To me, Apple exists in the spirit of the people that work there and the sort of philosophies and purpose by which they go about their business. “If I’m a million miles away and all those people still feel those things and they’re still working to make the next great personal computer, then I will feel that my genes are still in there. If Apple just becomes a place where computers are a commodity item and where the romance is gone … then I’ll feel I have lost Apple.”
It has often been said that Apple’s “magic” exists at its core – that it posses some unique quality of DNA; something that sets the company apart, not only from competitors in the technology industry, but from convention, broadly speaking. Even in 1985, Steve Jobs recognized that, at its core, Apple’s innovation was sparked as much from the bottom as from the top. While Jobs’ influence on Apple had been instrumental, even then, as he and a few loyal employees resigned from Apple and took their first steps into the unknown, he recognized that the innovative core of the company, that cluster of sparking neurons, was carried by each employee, and could survive after he was gone.
While Apple faces many uncertainties moving forward, following his resignation as CEO, it seems clear that the philosophy that Steve Jobs instilled into the company, no less the wider technology industry, and the waves of innovation that have spread from that germ, will continue. In his life, Steve Jobs has offered much to Apple, and to the world of technology. But his most important gift does not come in the form of a product, or of a service. Rather, his gift comes in the form of a vision, of a philosophy, of a spark.
[1] Carolyn Friday, et al. “Showdown in Silicon Valley” Newsweek Magazine (September, 1985).
