One of my goals this year is to read more biographies and auto-biographies, and yesterday I finally finished my first one in 2019. Turns out, there are plenty of lessons from Steve Jobs that I’ve learned.
I don’t know why I chose Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs in the first place, as I’m not a tech fan nor an Apple user. I don’t even know that much about Steve Jobs, except that he’s this important guy who found iPhone and all its iStuff compatriots. But having read it now, I can say that I don’t regret picking up this book. It’s one of the few things I’ve read that I dare say has changed my life. Well, it hasn’t really, but I can already feel that it’s gonna get me thinking for a long, long time.
I’m sure you can find plenty of reviews online about the technicalities of Isaacson’s book, like how faithful it is to the truth of Jobs’ life. So, I’m going to focus instead on my personal responses and the lessons I’ve learned.
Getting to Know Steve Jobs
It’s crazy how much I’ve learned about Steve Jobs. I know it’s a biography and that it is supposed to tell me about him, but before reading this book he was just another world-changing entrepreneur that I didn’t really know about. I’m not proud to say that I’ve been a bit too ignorant about ‘the greater things’ that are going on outside my own little life, but learning about Steve Jobs and his determination to implement his visions really opened my eyes.
Steve had always been a bright kid who was never afraid to deviate from the mainstream. When he was intrigued by something, he would do everything there was to do to learn about it. He was passionate in everything he did, and I’m using ‘passion’ in its purest sense. I believe this is what ultimately drives him towards the path he had forged with Apple.
Most importantly, Steve was a strong-willed individual with strong beliefs. When he thought of an idea, he would immediately act on it, no matter how crazy or impossible it may sound to others.
Steve had always been a bright kid who was never afraid to deviate from the mainstream.
The company Steve helped build, Apple, has changed the modern world not for inventing the computer or music player or mobile phone. Instead, Apple has revolutionised the tech industry. Steve planted in the company’s roots the belief that design is as important as, if not more than, the technical engineering behind these gadgets. He valued aesthetic beauty and ease of use, accessibility, creating a perfect and smooth user experience. He cared about things like the box a product comes in to the smallest and most natural details that many wouldn’t realise has to be thought of.
In the end, his perfectionism (which often came out as obsessive and aggressive to colleagues and employees) did pay off. It gave us almost everything we now take for granted: smartphones and tablets, lightweight laptops, online app purchases, the scrolling feature and more.
A Spark of Motivation
I’m amazed by the way that one man has practically given us the technology we now have. Sure, there are other amazing innovators in the tech industry. But before Apple, PCs were clunky and hideous, and the average person didn’t want them.
They were too complicated to navigate. UIs weren’t friendly and intuitive. Music players were not sleek or beautiful. Mobile phones weren’t smart.
Steve may not be the engineer behind all of Apple’s products, but he was the one who brought together all the smartest and brightest people. He was the one who made them believe that they could do better, create better and manufacture better. And guess what? They did.
Nearing the end of his fight with cancer, Steve didn’t stop working and creating. He knew he was running out of time and wanted to give as much as he could to the world. He forced himself to attend meetings. His eyes lit up when he spoke about Apple and its newest innovations. His soul burned with energy even as his body failed him.
During his last days when he was at his weakest, Steve told Isaacson, the writer of his biography: “I’ve done all that I can do.”
It hit me right then that I have not done so.
I haven’t been living up to my potential. I’ve been slacking off at uni. I’ve been saying that I want to learn all these languages, write all these stories and start a business someday. That I want to live my best year and work on this blog. But no, what have I been doing?
I’m just a mindless consumer of other people’s creations. I’m ‘procrastinating’. It was in that moment, when I read that line, that I knew I had to change. I was ashamed.
Technology
Oh, I never cared about technology before, not that much. I have a nice laptop, a working smartphone and I’m happy. I was never hyped up by the latest releases from the cool companies and have always been a firm believer of Android as opposed to Apple.
I thought they’re too expensive (I still think so) and exclusive, in the sense that to fully enjoy the MacBook experience I had to own an iPhone, AirPod, Apple Watch and everything else they’re making. But this was exactly what Steve wanted. A seamless experience for Apple users, where devices can only sync with other Apple devices.
Knowing the story of the man behind these crazy expensive gadgets actually make me care about them. I began watching reviews of Apple products on YouTube, which led to other niches too. Like Tesla.
Call me outdated and tech-blind, but (as I’ve said 1000x times) I’ve never really cared about cars, let alone electric cars. Only now have I realised what amazing things they are. (When I’m talking about electric cars I mean Tesla because I believe they’re to this industry what Apple was to the computer/ tech). Not only do they have less emission than gas cars, the fact that they are software-based is really cool!
You know what else I want to learn now? Driving. So I can actually drive the thing when I get myself a Tesla car (talk about motivation and getting ahead of myself).
The Verdict
This has become more personal than a simple book review, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve talked about Steve Jobs, his revolutionary company and even Tesla cars. I finished reading his biography yesterday and you can already see its impact on me.
Yes, this is my first blog post in a while, and it’s not just the short ‘book review’ with tons of copy-pasted quotations that I’ve been writing. It’s this long ramble and self-reflection that I’m not even sure anyone would read through.
I knew after turning the the last page that I had to do something to change my life into something that I’m actually excited about. It will take a lot of hard work and courage, and I know working on my own emotional wellbeing would be a good start.
But as I learned from Steve, all great things come from the smallest steps. For him, it started with the blue box. For me, it starts with this book review.
All in all, I can’t recommend this book enough, not to mention these lessons that I’ve personally learned from Steve Jobs’ story. Even if you’re not an Apple fan (I wasn’t), even if you don’t like reading biographies (I didn’t), I really wish you’d give this a chance.
You might end up loving it, merely tolerating it, or hating every page of it, but even then, at least you’d have known the story of one of the greatest men in the 21st century. And at least you’ll know you’ve tried.
If you’re looking for more non-fiction books, I’d recommend The Happiness of Pursuit.
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