Ive always admired jobs, but I didnt think he was genius, or a visionary. Was it his smarts that created Apple? No, that was the Woz. He simply wanted to bring it to the people, and took the risk to do so. After he made his money, he continued to stick his neck out. Why? He could have just invested his money and lived a life few can even dream of achieving.
There are people with good ideas that arent necessarily genius. There are people with money that are happy with living a luxurious life without risk. There are very few who have good ideas AND the funding to easily take the risk without risking bankruptcy. Most billionaires are worried about their track record and public persona. They dont want any failure on record. Jobs did not care about failure, and subsequently had many. Anyone remember the Newton? Or Next? or the idea to keep Apple propriatary? He failed epicly on countless occasions. Most people with money like being rich and do not care to risk valuable dollars on longshots. IMO that is exactly what Jobs did. He did it because he could.
Throughout history humans did great things with the sole driving force being "because they could". the great pyramids... going to the moon, etc. Neither made financial sense. Today we have an understanding of how to do a great many things. Yest for the first time in human history we do not do them because of cost and risk. Jobs was the embodiment of the human spirit, who decided to do things because he could, regardless of cost or risk.
He didnt invent the touchscreen, or the cellphone, or the GUI. But he decided to put them together and make a device that cost 4-6X more than its competitors in hopes that people would pay the price for advancing technology. Like the Newton, there was no market for such a device, and it could have easily shared the Newton's fate... but he did it anyway.... because he could. THAT is what made him great.
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