In recent days, I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of watching Steve Jobs videos on youtube. There are 30+ years of product releases, demos, press conferences, interviews, ect to pour through. For all his highs and lows, Steve was just an interesting guy. There’s this thing in history circles called ‘Great man history’ this idea that we as humans want to simplify who we give credit to, and glorify those people beyond reality. In the most popular cases – MacArthur, Stalin, Warhol, and, yes, Jobs, the “great man” leans into it.
When you think of the Ipod, Iphone, or IPad, do you think of low level staff working weekends, being pressed to code and solder that much faster? Or do you think of the guy in the mom jeans?
Bill Burr made light of this on Conan a decade ago – “GET ON IT!” The challenges with these and these other guys is that often they are extremely effective. Call Napoleon a ‘great man’ as a critique, fine, but he still conquered Europe. In Steve’s case, he engineered one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in the history of capitalism. Apple was 2 months away from bankruptcy in 1997 when he returned, and by his death it was, well, Apple.
Watching these old videos, it’s clear he had a gift for presentation that greatly accelerated during his second term at Apple. I feel ready to purchase a 26-year-old product when I watch the original Ipod demo. Steve makes 1,000 songs in your pocket sound downright magical. Its easy when watching these videos to understand the myth. To ignore the team effort this truly was. The reality is that the “STEVE RETURNS TO APPLE AND IMMEDIATELY SAVES IT” narrative is compelling, but it not only gives him too much credit for what he didn’t do, it ironically also steals the credit from him in a meaningful way.
First – Macworld 1997.
It’s difficult to overstate how poor the situation Steve had walked into earlier that year. Apple was completely rudderless. A large part of this was that Apple was constantly trying to please a fanbase that was picky, resistant to change, and who felt they were in a jihad against the goliath Microsoft. It’s remarkable watching Steve onstage, having just returned, announcing a full partnership with Apple’s sworn enemy. And for that sin, he’s boo’d to oblivion. The crowd is incensed by the idea, they are livid, they hate it. They nearly turn riotous when Bill Gates himself pops up on a giant screen above them in all his standard definition glory.
The myth of the great man hero triumphantly returning to the company he sounded and saving the day doesn’t square with this footage at all. A man and a company teetering, a deal with the devil, an infuriated, booing crowd, and Steve Jobs nearly begging them to give him a chance. Steve gets credit for far too much, but I don’t think we really consider how low he felt on stage here in Boston in 1997. Thankfully for us, this particular shot has a chaser in the form of Macworld 2000.
Things have changed, the fat colorful IMac has revived the company and in just 1 year the Ipod will launch the company into the stratosphere. In the time between these two videos, Steve has just been the interim CEO. Brought in days before collapse to get a desperate shot at righting the ship. Now, it’s steadied, and Steve announces that he’ll no longer be the interim CEO, just Apple’s CEO permanently. The crowd – likely made of mostly the same people who boo’d him viciously a little more than 2 years earlier – gives him a standing ovation.
Like I’ve said, I think Steve Jobs leaned into being a ‘great man’ later in his career. He took the claims of tech genius and happily rolled with them as his brand. But his reaction at the recently hostile crowd cheering triumphantly in support of his tenure at the company he founded 25 years earlier is as real as I’ve seen in anyone. He’s totally taken aback, the guy who always has a quip just stands awkwardly at the moment he’s being presented with.
That’s the risk of leaning into it. It’s the same risk that many current ‘great men’ in tech and politics are taking when they lean into such a narrative. We love a great-man story, but stories define, and to define is to limit. When faced with these types of modern myths, it’s key to ask – who actually made this achievement happen? And what of how this happened is being ignored by just saying it’s one great man doing great man things?
For Steve it’s missing an army of engineers, and it’s ignoring a lot of things. That includes a speech in 1997 I’m sure he’d have preferred to forget.
“For whatever deserves to exist also deserves to be known, for knowledge is the image of existence, and things mean and splendid exist alike” – Francis Bacon
Colin
P.S. Okay I have another thing I’m obsessing about with these Steve Jobs presentations that I can’t help but bring up.
During the introduction of the iphone in 2007, probably Jobs’ most known presentation of them all, he starts by listing off a number of products Apple would be presenting. A touchscreen Ipod, an internet communicator, and a phone. In rapid succession, he starts saying these back to back while the logos on screen scuffle one by one behind him.
“An Ipod,
A phone,
And an internet communicator,”
(Pause)
“An Ipod
A phone”
And at this moment the audience starts cheering and clapping. Steve stops this repetition
“Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device.” (slides changes to ‘iPhone’ text.) “We are calling it: iPhone. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”
It’s the iconic moment, probably even more so than the product reveal itself. It’s Steve’s thesis statement for the Iphone, and it’s a bold one. I’ve seen this many times in all its glory, it’s a great performance. Something stuck out to me this time.
The slide stops on the second Iphone. There isn’t another internet communicator logo slide, it stops 2/3rds of the way through the second repetition, and then proceeds onto the rest of the material. These are set slides, prepared ahead of time. Steve knew exactly when the audience would clap.
Like I said, he does deserve some credit.