Time after time you saw the man, and now his legacy, change the world. So why not aspire to his brand of greatness?
Before we dive into the list of tips, here is your first … well … tip:
You are not Steve Jobs.
Fughettaboutit. You’re not him, never will be and—come to think of it—nobody ever was him. Not even Steve Jobs himself.
His legacy is an idealized fiction: a mixture of biographies, bad movies, and reinterpretations through the eyes and minds of people far less sentient than Jobs.
Don’t get me wrong; some of the legend is partly correct and well-deserved. But trying to emulate his legacy is plain wrong.
So, here’s how to not “emulate” his legacy but rather translate his key characteristics into techniques that can help us mere mortals.
#1: Be a mini Elon Musk
Mr. Musk is not Steve Jobs, but he may be the latest, greatest approximation. He spins the most outlandish, dent-the-universe visions into readily consumable reality distortion webs.
People get caught in his webs.
Then they plunk down cash for $100k cars (that don’t yet exist) and book space travel. Be the reality distortion web master; be a mini Elon Musk.
#2: Embrace the weird
This guy known to be a bit smart—Al Einstein—once said,
If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it.”
Listen to Al. People such as Jobs defied status quo and did things—continually—that were weird. But I don’t think he cared because his psyche already embodied the Einsteinian wisdom “be absurd and perhaps weird.”
Be yourself. And if today that means weird, then happily go for it.
#3: Believe that everything is possible
Let’s get even more touchy-feely now: You may have noticed that when you are passionate, purposeful and firing on all cylinders to reach a goal that excites you, then not only do you behave differently but the environment around you behaves differently.
This may sound mystical and ridiculous, but stay with me.
Your own passion creates a contagious reality distortion web. If you have spun the web well, you believe almost anything can be possible. But just as important, those around you start to believe it’s possible.
Is this so crazy and mystical? Just look at the best, most hard-driving innovators across history. From Edison to Tesla to Ford to Jobs to Musk, they all continually expanded their circles of belief as they moved ahead.
#4: Charm some but not all
Abraham Lincoln was, by some accounts, no born charmer. But he did wonderful things for this country and also nailed a key concept with the quote,
“You can please some of the people some of the time all of the people some of the time some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”
If you’ve got the cojones (this is meant in a non-gender-specific way) to not care about pleasing anybody, then go for it. But if you’d rather take the slightly more mainstream path of picking your marks, charming and pleasing some, then make that a practice.
Steve Jobs had tremendous charisma … when he wanted to. This is useful and not even particularly shallow. If you communicate your vision, tie it to your own passion and make the benefit to others clear, you will in fact be at least a teeny bit charming.
#5: Be a world-class diversity embracer
Any mini Steve Jobs worth his or her weight in bubble wrap needs to embrace multiple perspectives. Combine like and unlike things. It’s about fusion, frictionless-connecting, creating the new from the existing.
A Special Note for Jerks
You may notice I didn’t include the tip “be an overly intense, in-your-face jerk who slaps people around as if they were hockey pucks.” Not that Jobs really did this, but any behavior along these lines is totally unnecessary (not to mention morally wrong).
Do you have to be passionate, intense and action-oriented, and push for high-quality outcomes? Of course you do. Must you be an absolute jerk in the process? No, not at all.
My $0.02 says do it your way, find your own best communication style, guide, lead, teach, help, push … but please check your “jerkitude” at the door.
I’ve made some claims here that may seem outlandish to some. So what do you think about becoming a mini Steve Jobs?
Related: 7 Reasons Why People Will Always Choose Apple
[ Image credit, creative commons license, Andrew Forgrave, Steve Jobs Tribute Haiku, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/, no changes ]
Jeff Zias is an Unstructured Time and Grassroots Innovation Leader, works for Intuit. He is the author of The Innovation Animals.
