The True Legacy of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs passed away today – I woke up and read the news on my iPhone, like much of the world.

I never thought I would be so affected by the passing away of someone I never knew personally. But if you are in the world of tech and developing consumer products, it is not possible to have not thought about life as Steve Jobs – how his brain functions, how he figures out what should be built, how he sets the bar, how he hires and build teams, how he delves upon every aspect of the product, … you wish you had 0.1% of his ability, you wish you could be more like him, since being him means creating profound impact, and that is what you are really here for.

And this I believe is his true legacy. The products he helped create would have a shelf life of maybe a decade, Apple as a company would be perhaps super successful for another 2-3 decades, but what would inspire generations of current and future entrepreneurs, programmers and designers is the way he set about building products:

• leapfrogging the current state of the art, not incremental change
• relentless focus on the user
• not settling for less than perfection

This approach to building products is his true legacy, and for that, the world would be a better place.