He Said My Name’s A Teacher

“He said my name’s a teacher, that is what I call myself,
It’s an old expression, but I must insist it’s true.”
  – Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) 

 

While reflecting on Steve Jobs’ recent passing, we remembered a postthat appeared in “My The Forge Be With You” back in mid-2010. It commented on a report in Wired that Jobs often would personally answer emails sent to him by us regular Joe’s out here in Apple land. Our point was that Jobs understood that for our communication to be effective, it not only must be engaging, it must connect with people on a one-to-one basis. Apple’s brilliant advertising through the years achieved this as does the company’s Genius Bar model (however crazy that bar can be on the weekends and however many customers have reported problems – hey, nothing’s perfect). Taking time to answer customers one by one demonstrated this principle, as well.

While Jobs – like every one of us – had his faults (as the feeding frenzy over Walter Isaacson’s new biography shows), the fact is he led teams of people who literally changed the way we think, work and relate to technology. A recent story on “60 Minutes” reported how the iPad is helping severely autistic children discover a way out of their shell so they can interact successfully with the world around – including their parent and family members. And some people still think the iPad is just a toy?

In any event, Jobs transformed a company – twice – and helped lead it out of the ashes of failure to the pinnacle of global success through a combination of passion, drive, insight, intelligence, creativity and an ability to communicate with others that sets a bar for all modern leaders.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. We hardly knew ya…