I didn’t like Steve Jobs.
And why?
Because at my dinosauric age of 39, Steve Jobs completely turned my easy chugging life Upside Down.
This is what he did to me:
– He made me go crazy with his attention to detail!
Check out this MacBook remote control I bought some time back:
When I peeled the small tape that sealed this slim box together, I was awestruck. The tape was EXACTLY as slim as the groove it was supposed to sit in. It was NOT EVEN 1 micron broader.
This attention to detail has consumed me in my everyday life.
When I open lunch boxes, envelopes, anything at all – however insignificant, I remember this MacBook remote control box!
I once gave a video descriptive rant to the head of business of Cafe Coffee Day (a coffee shop chain in India) about how their sandwiches were packed in boxes with tapes that were too broad, too long and too difficult to open. I told them to buy this remote control to understand the solution.
Steve Jobs made me think of everything with perfection. And that torments me every single day 🙁
– Steve Job made me understand simplicity.
Every time I operate my Sony Bravia using the remote control below, I feel nauseated:
That’s because Steve Jobs taught me that there is NO NEED for complexity and confusion. His iPod, his iTouch and his iPhone constantly remind me of that.
Now, every time I operate ANYTHING that is non Apple, I keep applying this logic of ‘simplicty’ to it and wonder why most people JUST DON’T GET IT…?
This obsession with simplicity has seeped into my life. The way I talk. The way I think. The way I write and definitely the way I do business.
It’s very very difficult to be simple and that’s the pain I live with now.
– Steve Jobs reinforced my sense of MORALS (and hence made me feel guilty of my previous misdeeds).
At a time when iTunes was not popular, digital music of the pirated variety was proliferating like a weed.
I was (still am) obsessed with music and there was no way to ship CDs of music I loved from the USA when I was in India. Yet to enjoy that new music, I started falling prey to ‘packaged’ cassettes that I know had been ripped off from original albums.
Once iTunes came along, I have NEVER EVER burnt or bought an illegitimate sound track. And I feel so proud about it! At the same time I now look back and retrospectively feel guilty of having bought pirated music.
– Steve Jobs made me very Ambitious (and restless).
As an Indian Games Company, we were chugging along OK.
Making games and selling them to Indian brands, etc was what we understood.
However, the iTunes platform and the ability to make SMALL, self created games and SELL them to the entire world made Entrepreneurs like me WAKE UP!
We did not HAVE to be EA to be big in games. We could be games2win!
Now, every passing day, even small ideas give me INSPIRATION to create some kind of app and put it out there – in the hope that it could be my lucky break!
A simple game of ours called ‘Super Mom’ that we built in Mumbai – that cost us less than 2000 US$ has already grossed us 100,000 US$ on the iStore (Ads+downloads) so far.
I do not know WHERE and HOW that would have ever been possible.
Steve Jobs continues to give me sleepless nights ‘coz I still dream games and apps all night long and have the ability to make them HAPPEN when I wake up.
Steve Jobs, you are my Guru. And true to Guru tradition, you torment me to make me perfect.
May you now teach the Gods a thing or two….
This day (the day you passed away) is surely what I call ‘Sunset on Earth, Sunrise on Heaven’
****
Addendum: Thanks to Steve Job’s inspiration, my Company was finally able to hit #1 this June!!
****
First Published on: Aug 25, 2011
brijesht
the title made me a little uncomfortable, the post, delighted me.
Yep, he is the man. Just validates the theory of less is more, basics are supreme. Simplicity is complex to achieve, but that’s the best.
Nice write sir.
Mithun Chandra
Nothing else to say, other than. I concur…..
Dhruv goyal
Superb Post….
Very Very true….
Reem Saied
Steve Jobs apparently wanted to create a Washing Machine from start as he found NONE of the brands available to be efficient nor aesthetically pleasing.
chitra kejriwal
Alok very well written blog,now I know who inspired you to be such a detailed person.
Mom.
S Ahmed
Steve Jobs: Who else can think of making it big with an MP3 Player. Am a Microsoft person who looks at Mr. Jobs for inspiration.
Rajs
Nice post!
Adith Podhar
Simplicity and aesthetics remind me of Japanese people, whom I had the fortune to observe during a 2-week trip to Japan. I am appalled that they have lost on innovation because of their ‘common sense’ approach to everything which can ‘better’ an existing product but cannot ‘create’ a new product.
Attention to detail is a part of their life, which is required to make ‘world class‘ products but not ‘path-breaking’ products. I hope Japan learns from Steve Jobs. Wake up Toyota, Mitsubishi, Canon, Sony, Honda etc etc
vishakha
reading the title i thought that for a change i will disagree with you alok, because most of the time i agree so much that i do not bother to write comments as wat’s the whole point of saying i agree i agree with everything you write. so continuing with the tradition, i say once again, “you r right, steve jobs is so so right”
Ashwin C Parulkar
Jobs products are work of art they connect with people..he isa true artist in that sense
Harsha Mv
Brilliant Post. Rodinhood Style 😉
anand.kaya
Alok,
So beautifully worded, and so resonating with thousands of us IT / Marketing people.
I have had difficulty all my life talking this to people around us, trying to make them understand the values of simplicity. And every time I gave up, Steve nudged me back to the beliefs with something new and useful. No words can sufficiently describe his greatness.
A few words written by me as the obituary: https://poems.anandjain.com/2011/10/blog-post.html
Lets all pray that we come across such greatness once again in our lifetime, chances of which I see rare.
Warm regards,
Anand Jain
Usha mallya
completely agree with you.. am totally awestruck with this man…a true genius…
Ashwin C Parulkar
nice poem
Jobs tu aakar chala guya
is Prithvise, kisi aur Graha
ke talash mein , ja ha ruke
honge log hamari taraha
ek jadoogar ki talash mein
jo bharega sapne unki ankhomein
bass isitaraha…
Sanjay Swamy
But it would only wash black turtle neck shirts and blue jeans…
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Here is my late rememberance of Steve Jobs
Thanks to Steve Job’s inspiration, my Company was finally able to hit #1 this June!!
Govind G Prajapati
good one, use of contradict title and grabbed attention of many like me…
indeed you liked the steve from bottom of your heart didnt you?
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
i would do anything for him…
Anamika Joshi
When I first read the title of your post in facebook in my mobile, I grinned a little and thought – HOW COME? I thought of checking it out later in my comp to understand exactly what you mean by it.
Today after reading this, you have put me in an uncomfortable zone (just the way Mr. Steve Jobs make you do). All because while people like me just admired and adored Steve, you took the best out of him and transformed your ways of thinking. You THINK. You DO.
We all have a lesson to learn from this – it’s not just enough to feel nice about someone but understand what exactly attracts you about that individual and resonate it in your actions.
Tarun
wow alok sir.. now you have made many more people uncomfortable. Passing on the legacy 🙂
Abhishek Dabas
MUST TRY: Height of Subtlety @ iPhone Photos
I was swiping across my photos and the ‘auto-rotate’ was on. Though it is an important feature, at times you do not want the auto-rotate to happen. You want to switch it off for that one photograph you desire to look at closely by turning it in whichever direction you want.
A solution came to mind and so did a thought, “Only Steve and Apple could have thought of it!”. And yes, the solution was already in place. And yes, I did not find it in the GalaxyS or any other phone. Btw, mine is iPhone3GS and iOS5. So, not the latest tech by Apple.
The Solution: Hold the photograph with a thumb and the auto-rotate stops. Try it!
For the Android guys, its a long winding trip to the settings! Twice!
Aneja Raj
Great post. I love Steve’s work for another thing – ease of use for the end user.
His designs are loaded with complex functionality but easy to use. It became more glaring with the latest Samsung S4 release. Although Samsung is much more robust Technically & more Customizable, it is harder to use for an average consumer iPhones are much more easy to navigate and more user friendly.
Ratnakar Gokarn
Great post again about one of the greatest visionaries and entrepreneurs of our Generation.
All Apple products are designed by their VP of industrial design, Jonathan Ive who is actually inspired mostly by the great German designer Dieter Rams. He is the guy who brought the world Braun products. Anyone using Braun products will find the similarity in design, aesthetics and simplicity.
Alok, we hope that you could be the next “Steve Jobs” of India. Looking forward to meeting up with you.
Inspirational post!
Praveen Kumar
awesome 🙂 I`m reading Steve Jobs Biography book.. its amazing.. 🙂
Nitish Mehta
Rajiv Indimath
Awesome!!!!! the most important take away is SIMPLICITY in DESIGN!!!!!
Paresh Thakkar
hello Rodin,
have been lurking around your blog from quite some time, and i find them quite helpful, amusing, motivating and thought provoking… read this article today, and could not resist myself from replying…
i liked this post, as its reflecting many of my thoughts about Steve, and have particularly liked this original one-liner…
“Steve Jobs, you are my Guru. And true to Guru tradition, you torment me to make me perfect.“
thanks for a fantastic article…
p.s. have shared on my FB – if you dont object…
Robin Dhanwani
I agree to all the points about the “Good Steve” which has inspired all of us to a great extent with his perfection, drive and passion.
But there is also a “Bad Steve” and would love to know what Alok & others think about it: https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10?IR=T
Jay J Lathia
Wowwww!!
Simply Wowwww!! Truly inspirational.
darpan jain
I wondered, that the whole post is quite simple, no swanky words at all. And realized, that was the motive of whole post, to keep it simple yet useful. Though title was quite obvious.
Deep Chaturvedi
Hello that is really nice post,
thanks for sharing and please visit my blog : https://iphtechnologies.com/blog/