Why is Steve Jobs so revered? What did he do that none other could? Did he have any extraordinary skills, any intergalactic, out of the world powers? May be, may be not. He’s dead to pitch in his veto vote anyway. So what I can put forth is a theory.
I believe everyone has visionary powers, some short-sighted, some long-sighted. Some have deep consumer insights coupled with acute observational skills, some simply fake that. Some don’t get the platform to showcase such skills or some get the platform, but have no skills to showcase. And Steve Jobs did have skills to showcase. My God, he had all of the above along with opportunity, time, position and platform. It’s as if a celestial happening of sorts. Bill Gates is one other lucky chap with a vision, more recently, Zuckerberg is another.
A person who has ideas but no idea how to implement them into real business sense, is same as a person who speaks management sense but is not in a position where he can reach millions to spread it; both would be laughed upon equally, ridiculed would be more appropriate in the case of the latter. I can relate this to an issue of context in some sense. Had the person in first case not hindered by implementation hurdle, we would have seen many more Steve Jobs by now. If the persons in the case of the latter would have been in better positions, they may have been more influential and may be we could have new management theories and gurus.
So what’s stopping them? – An opportunity. An opportunity to present their ideas to the world; an opportunity to be taken seriously; an opportunity to be listened to. But opportunities aren’t served on a silver platter. The world makes it difficult for them to come to the fore. They have to create their own opportunity and only if they succeed and become successful, would society look upon them with reverence. But even that’s not sufficient for the societies of the world today. Today they require people who have been successful consistently time and again, who can deliver success on the call every time!
But opportunities don’t come by so easily. They have to be created as pointed out to me by one of my colleagues. But look at it this way. People slog all the way in the organisations they work for, before they climb up the management ladder sufficiently enough to have that window of opportunity to them. And when they have the platform to speak their mind, we listen and we appreciate their ‘new’ way of thinking and approach. And then it spreads and bingo, you have another success story in the making. They created that opportunity for them, but what use is of that opportunity, if something that can be brought into existence sooner is being delayed because someone somewhere, the next success story is waiting, working hard, to create his/her own window of opportunity to be heard?
An inspirational read:
- 35 Speeches by Iconic CEOs – From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to Apple’s Steve Jobs (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
Do let me know your thoughts below!