Reflections on "Steve Jobs"

I had long seen the biography of Steve Jobs everywhere, a copy in everyone’s hands. But the commentary on Jobs from the outside world was as varied and contradictory as the way the media talks about figures like Jack Ma. Recently, by chance, someone asked me to read it, so I picked up the Jobs biography and went through it. After finishing, I came away with quite a few different reflections. Let me share two of them.

First, only the obsessive succeed. Jobs had his own ideas and opinions about everything he did, sometimes to the point of obsession. Even as a young man, he was bold and unconventional: whatever idea he came up with, he believed in it unwaveringly. His exploration of the spiritual world, his preference for vegetarianism, his devotion to minimalism. Fortunately, most of these obsessions were benevolent. But there is an old Chinese saying: listen to all sides and you will be enlightened; heed only one and you will stay in the dark. In my view, geniuses are often otherworldly. A genius tends to hold fast to the pursuit deep in their heart, always leading the world, pulling it in their own direction. Those who are not at the genius level, however, will ultimately end up relying on collective wisdom, just as the saying goes, “Three cobblers with their wits combined equal Zhuge Liang the master mind.” The wisdom of the crowd is usually the most stable, and right most of the time.

Second, Jobs was a marketing master. In this world, two things are the hardest: the first is taking money out of other people’s pockets, and the second is implanting your own ideas into other people’s minds. Jobs was a world-class marketing master. At first, Jobs did not always push his own ideas into others’ heads, but after returning from his trip to India, his life took off. He was constantly persuading others to follow his vision. Even when Apple was still a small company, he already understood deeply how to grab attention at every exhibition. He also frequently exchanged ideas with many marketing masters, so his marketing techniques kept improving. Moreover, his pursuit of marketing was an order of magnitude higher than anyone else’s, which is why Apple’s ads always felt fresh and new. Marketing didn’t just have a profound impact on Apple’s products; it also created a “Jobs magnetic field.” Whenever Jobs appeared, people would, without realizing it, end up agreeing with his point of view.

Finally, a thousand readers will have a thousand Hamlets. I’m sure that every time you read about Jobs, you’ll come away with a different reflection of your own.