As you may have heard, Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer today. Much will be written about the life and legacy of this amazing man over the next few days and I expect his death will echo and reverberate in our media and social networks for some time because of the way he touched our lives. The innovations and “magical” devices he built and marketed became an intimate part of the lives of millions of people the world over. I was using my iPad today when I first heard of his death. Somehow, that seems appropriate. I’ll leave it to others to contemplate the many other facets of his legacy, from the business side to the technical side, and focus on what, for this forum, seems to be one of his primary contributions. For millions of people around the world Steve Jobs became synonymous with American innovation. President Obama said as much in his statement on Job’s death:
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
He so well embodied the American dream, the rise from garage tinkerer to billionaire businessman, and his products so entranced the imagination that even in countries that dislike America, they loved Apple and Steve Jobs. One needs only look to Apple’s popularity in China to see the proof of that. Of course, as this tech blog notes, Jobs filled that particular niche of a familiar story, almost as if he was cast by Hollywood in the leading role:
The Hollywood storytelling tradition, built on the American cult of individual achievement, feeds the belief in a national history of invention and innovation. Progress by committee? Not so compelling a script, even though Apple succeeds on the hard work of thousands. But the American inventor mystique – the notion that one guy armed with a combination of a good idea, hard work, challenging conditions and a bit of snake oil, can still change the world? That’s been a big seller since Eli Whitney and the cotton gin.
For a world in which personal success still depends in large part on family connections, privilege and power, Jobs represented that great American idea more than any other leader in recent memory. The symbolic power of that idea elevates perceptions of the U.S. role in the world far more than our politicians and diplomats could ever hope to do. When millions of people the world over think of America in the next few days they won’t think about our armies deployed far from home, or our position on Mideast peace, or our presidential election, they will think about Steve Jobs and that amazing land where Apples come from.
Image Credit: Los Angeles Times/Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
